Royals and stadium workers’ union reach agreements, but one complaint remains pending
The Kansas City Royals and the union representing its employees at Kauffman Stadium have agreed to three new labor contracts, the club announced this week.
However, allegations of unfair labor practices the Service Employees International Union Local 1 filed with the National Labor Relations Board in March and amended earlier this month remain unresolved.
“The Kansas City Royals are proud to share that we have reached agreement with the SEIU on strong new contracts that lock in substantial wage increases for our events, ballpark services, and grounds & tarp employees, maintaining our place near the top among our peers across Major League Baseball,” the Royals announced in a news release.
SEIU Local 1 members serve a variety of roles at Kauffman Stadium, including concessions through Aramark, janitorial through Velociti Services, and three units of workers who are directly employed by the Royals in ballpark services, event services and ground and tarp crews.
Those three groups include tollbooth attendants, ticket takers, parking lot attendants, restroom attendants, ticket sellers, ushers and grounds and tarp employees.
Under the new contracts, Royals employees working at the stadium will be paid between $16 and $31 per hour for their work through the 2023 season. They will also receive regular pay increases through the life of the new contracts, the Royals said in the release.
The Royals, in response to union requests for greater parity among employees in the events services bargaining unit, agreed to a pay increase of 20% or more for ushers and bathroom attendees over the course of the contract, the Royals said.
“SEIU Local 1 members are pleased to have settled all three contracts after more than six months of negotiations with the Kansas City Royals,” Luisangel Rodriguez, spokesperson for SEIU Local 1, said in an email.
However, the union’s characterization of the contract differed from that of the Royals. Rather than “substantial wage increases,” most workers will receive “raises which are close to or less than the inflation rate for 2022, which effectively maintain pay levels and/or serve as pay cuts,” Rodriguez said.
He called the $31 an hour wage an outlier because of the roughly 500 Local 1 workers employed by the Royals, only one will receive that amount due to the person’s professional certifications related to chemical handling. Under the agreement, no more than two employees may be paid at that rate at any given time, he said.
Several employees will receive higher than inflation raises, which are intended to resolve wage compression from previous years, he said. Wage compression occurs when longtime employees make the same or less than new hires.
Restroom attendants and ushers, who make up about 25% of the workers across all three bargaining units, will receive $16 an hour for the 2023 season. Meanwhile four other classifications within their unit will receive an average hourly wage of $22.48 for the 2023 season.
Over the life of the contract, ushers and restroom attendants will receive a 18.3% pay increase while the other four classifications will receive an average increase of 12%, Rodriguez said.
“In all cases, the negotiated raises for future years are intended to align with anticipated inflation, ensuring that pay levels remain stable throughout the term of the contract,” Rodriguez said.
The ballpark services contract was fully executed in March, while the event services contract was fully executed in July. The contact for the grounds and tarp crews is in the process of being fully executed, he said.
‘Bad faith bargaining’ alleged
Earlier this year, the union said that tollbooth attendants, ticket takers and ushers couldn’t access clean drinking water at the stadium.
The Royals said in the release that the issue “was amicably resolved back in April during the ordinary course of negotiations.”
While an agreement was reached to resolve the water concerns, the Royals didn’t implement those health and safety rules until July, Rodriguez contends.
In May, union workers filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against the Royals alleging bad faith bargaining including intimidation and harassment during the contract negotiations. The filing was amended earlier this month to include 30 additional charges.
Included in the “bad faith bargaining” are allegations that the Royals made unilateral changes to the terms of conditions of employment, including the installation of electronic ticker taker machines without notice and opportunity to bargain, Rodriguez said.
“We trust the NLRB to thoroughly and fairly investigate these complaints against the Kansas City Royals, and we are confident that they will find merit to these charges,” Rodriguez said.
Workers have the right to talk freely about their working conditions and should not feel threatened or that they would be punished for exercising those rights, he said.
“We have not — until now — responded to the Union’s false public characterization of our good faith negotiations with their bargaining team,” the Royals said in the release. “We believe the outcome of these negotiations demonstrates to bargaining unit members that we value their work, and shows our dedicated fans that we are committed to continuing to provide the best experience possible at Kauffman Stadium.”
The Royals are communicating with the NLRB and hope the matter will be resolved soon, said Sam Mellinger, vice president of communications for the Royals.
This story was originally published August 18, 2023 at 2:12 PM.
CORRECTION: This story originally misstated the pay increases the workers will receive over the life of the new contract.
