Union organizers get go-ahead for negotiations with New York trainers

A unionization effort for backstretch workers at tracks operated by the New York Racing Association has received certification to engage in collective-bargaining negotiations with at least nine trainers, according to the organizers of the effort and trainers.

Negotiations with a lawyer representing seven of the trainers are likely to begin in the first few weeks of November, according to the organizer, Gilberto Mendoza, who represents a local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Mendoza has collected signatures from hundreds of backstretch workers at Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course over the past 14 months as part of the effort.

Mendoza said that the negotiations will focus on guaranteeing a “living wage” for the workers along with sick pay, vacation pay, and other benefits and protections.

“What we’re looking for is a contract that is fair for the workers and fair for the trainers,” Mendoza said.

If successful, the unionization effort would be the first of its kind in the U.S. racing industry. Although most union activities are monitored by the federal National Labor Relations Board, the New York effort is instead being certified by a state agency, the Public Employment Relations Board, which typically deals with state union activities instead of private employers.

Trainers contacted by Daily Racing Form on Thursday were reluctant to speak on the record about the effort. Many have hired a labor attorney, Richard Ziskin, recommended by the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, to represent them in the negotiations over collective-bargaining agreements.

Linda Rice, who said she has 55 employees, confirmed that she has been served a petition seeking negotiations on behalf of her workers.

“It’s very early in the process,” Rice said. “I’ve never been through this before, so I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen.”

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Ziskin, who said he has known Mendoza for “15 to 20 years” as part of his work as a labor attorney, said that he could not predict how the negotiations would go.

“I can tell you that the racing industry and the trainers in it are completely different in almost all walks of life,” Ziskin said. “Trainers are a very unique group when it comes to any group of employers. I haven’t seen a contract proposal from the union yet, so I don’t know what they are looking for or what they are seeking to gain.”

The unionization effort is coming on the heels of dozens of investigations of New York barns conducted by federal and state labor departments over the past 10 years. The investigations have led to multiple settlements requiring trainers to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages and modernize their labor practices.

New York already has minimum-wage requirements that are much higher than other large racing states, such as Kentucky. The unionization effort has become a new source of frustration among trainers, according to one trainer who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“It’s just another reason not to be in New York,” the trainer said. “You just add it to the list.”

While conducting collective-bargaining negotiations with each individual trainer would seem to be a daunting task, Mendoza said that the negotiations that will take place in November would apply to the seven trainers who are represented by Ziskin. That contract will then be used as a template for other trainers in New York, Mendoza said.

“Once we get those first ones done, then I just use that one for the others,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said that he has applied for certification for the employees of 52 trainers in New York.

“Hopefully, we get them all,” Mendoza said. “Hopefully, by the end of the year we will have all 52.”

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