JACKSON (WNE) — Yellowstone National Park rangers have voted to unionize, according to unionization drive organizers.
The Jackson Hole Daily has yet to confirm the results with the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which oversees the United States’ labor-management relations. But one of the Yellowstone employees organizing the vote, Mark Wolf, said it passed 66-15. About 350 employees were eligible to vote, organizers said.
“We’re thrilled that our colleagues — hard-working public servants — voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionization,” Wolf said in a written statement. “Now we have a seat at the table for our collective voice to be heard in determining our working conditions. The better our working conditions are, the better we can steward this incredible national park.”
The vote establishes Yellowstone’s first chapter of the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents National Park Service workers elsewhere, as well as U.S. Forest Service employees and the majority of federal wildland firefighters.
Interpretive rangers, park guides, fee collectors, researchers and administrative staff will now have the option to join the union.
Organizers have said a union will allow workers to lobby Congress directly for higher pay and better working conditions.
Yellowstone management has not taken a position on union formation.
Park managers, however, have said they have supported and helped facilitate the process. Organizers said management has been welcoming, and that the Biden administration writ large is supporting employees’ efforts to unionize.
In the past, the National Federation of Federal Employees has secured funding to provide federal firefighters raises and to build federal employee housing.
Max Alonzo, the National Federation of Federal Employees staffer who covers land management agencies across the country, said the union’s next step will be to negotiate a contract for Yellowstone employees.
