San Diego lifeguards, who recently approved a new contract proposal with the city dealing with “presumptive illness coverage,” got some — but not all — of what they were looking for in the deal.
“But it’s a big step in the right direction,” said Ed Harris, former District 2 city councilman and the lifeguards union spokesman.
Presumptive illness coverage protections features workers’ compensation benefits implemented to protect employees who have high risk of injury and hazardous exposures on the job. The San Diego Police and Fire departments enjoy these benefits. Lifeguards have been denied the same coverage.
“It falls far short of what we were told by the mayor we were going to get in 2013,” said Harris of the latest agreement, adding, “It is not consistent with police and fire. But it will provide better protection then we have had in the past.”
Harris pointed out lifeguards “are going to be protected again for things like meningitis, tuberculosis, hernia and pneumonia. That’s a very good thing.”
Noting lifeguards “are part of the fire department,” Harris added, “It is our continued position that we fall under state law and should be fully covered under the Labor Code.”
After months of intensive negotiations, Teamsters Local 911 and the Lifeguard union leadership received their most recent proposal from the City of San Diego on Presumptive Illness Coverage protections following City Council closed session.
The lifeguards union has been engaged in a public information campaign for the last six months. With the El Niño season fast approaching and the potential for severe health exposures to lifeguards skyrocketing, the local believed it was in membership’s best interest to seriously consider the city’s most recent offer.
That offer, now approved, will provide coverage for short-term illness and injury. But it does not address, in the lifeguards’ view, the long-term health effects of exposure to contaminated water, sewage and chemicals. The offer also fails to provide coverage for other things.
“The bad side of it,” Harris said, “is things that are more serious and could kill you, like heart attack and cancer, we don’t get. But we’ll keep trying for it. This doesn’t end the conversation or the effort.”
Harris said this most recent contract vote “makes it very clear that members of the fire department are covered presumptively, though it’s a choice on how that’s interpreted.”
Harris said San Diego is “the first lifeguard agency to get presumptive coverage in California.”
This most recent ratification will be an addendum to the current contract between the City of San Diego and the Lifeguards.
Teamsters Local 911 has a membership of 9,000 members across Southern California and is an affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.