Lifeguards begin their season on watch at Ninth Street beach.
By MADDY VITALE
Ocean City has negotiated agreements and tentative deals with all eight labor unions representing employees in the city -- from police, fire and EMTs to lifeguards and city workers.
Mayor Jay Gillian outlined the status of the negotiations and contract agreements during a June 22 City Council meeting.
“We have approval for five-year contracts for three of our unions that represent the city employees. We now have contracts or tentative agreements with all of our eight unions in the city,” he said during the meeting. “These agreements are fair to both taxpayers and city team members, and we will continue to serve the needs of residents and guests for years to come.”
Doug Bergen, the city’s public information officer, released a breakdown of the contracts in an email Monday detailing tentative agreements to approved contracts as follows:
Tentative Agreements:
Communications Workers of America 1078: Most city employees outside police and fire. (6 years).
Teamsters Local 331: OCBP lifeguards (4 years).
Ocean City Beach Patrol Administrative Association: OCBP management (4 years).
American Federation of Musicians: Ocean City Pops musicians (4 years).
Memorandum of Agreement Ratified:
Communications Workers of America 1032: Middle managers for city (5 years).
Ocean City Police Benevolent Association Local 61: Ocean City Police Department (5 years).
Lifeguards watch over swimmers at the Ninth Street Beach.
While the rate increased to nearly $20 an hour based on longevity, residents noted that the starting wage was not enough for the important job of a lifeguard and was making it increasingly difficult to bring on enough guards.
In 2022, city officials noted that while the starting pay for the guards was $12.80, the senior guards, lieutenants and captains had hourly wages ranging from $25.16 to $38.63.
During a March 2023 City Council meeting in which the budget was presented, Ocean City resident Kathy Hogan, who has been vocal about the need to increase lifeguard salaries, stood up to tell Council something needs to be done.
Hogan said during the meeting that the city’s lifeguard salaries are not competitive with neighboring shore towns and should be increased for the summer of 2023.
She also told the Council members that Ocean City “should be embarrassed” by the salaries it pays to its lifeguards for their important duty of protecting public safety.
While the goal is to have about 190 lifeguards on staff, currently there are 185, which makes it one of the largest beach patrols in the state.
Members of the Ocean City Beach Patrol were not the only workers who had voiced concerns over the contracts. Police attended the same City Council meeting in March to show their dismay over negotiations.
Many Ocean City police officers who are represented by Local 61 of the Police Benevolent Association attended the March Council meeting.
Local 61 represents all of the Ocean City police officers except for Police Chief Jay Prettyman. City officials and police officers privately confirmed at the time that the contract negotiations had been “contentious so far.”
Fast forward just three months and now all eight unions representing municipal workers in Ocean City have come to either agreements or tentative ones.
The result is long-term contracts that could mean financial stability for the workers, stability in the workforce and help with the city’s annual budgeting.
Specifics of the union contracts that were finalized are included in the City Council packet for the June 22 meeting and can be viewed by clicking https://evogov.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/meetings/19/attachments/15341.pdf.
Ocean City police officers stand in the back of the Council chambers in a show of unity in their contract negotiations with the city in March.
