As NYC lifeguard shortage lingers, task force lacks key member: their union

As New Yorkers head to pools and beaches this summer, one group is conspicuously absent from a task force formed to address a dire lifeguard shortage: the lifeguard unions.

The NYC Lifeguard Interorganizational Task Force was formed in March to tackle the staffing crisis and boost swimming lessons to create a pipeline of future lifeguards. City Hall, the Department of Education and the parks department are all part of a wide-ranging group formed in March by the YMCA of Greater New York and the Association for a Better New York.

The shortage of lifeguards is especially stark this summer. The parks department says it has only hired 500 lifeguards for the season as of Friday – far short of the 1,400 staffers that the city typically hired pre-pandemic. Meanwhile, the city is supposed to open its 52 outdoor pools on Thursday, and beaches opened for the season on Memorial Day weekend.

DC 37, the union that includes two locals representing lifeguards and supervisors, has not responded to multiple invitations to join the task force, members of the group said.

“They were invited. And as we always say, we have an open-door policy,” said Sharon Greenberger, president of the YMCA of Greater New York. “We'd love DC 37’s participation.”

When asked about the invitations to the task force, DC 37 spokesperson Thea Setterbo said "the parks department would be the more appropriate entity for something like that because they are in charge of hiring, firing, recruitment and retention.”

The parks department said beaches are fully staffed, but did not address staffing for pools. Last summer, poolgoers contended with long lines, sudden closures and reduced programming due to a lack of lifeguards.

The union’s absence on the task force is reminiscent of its lack of cooperation with a Department of Investigation probe in 2021. That investigation concluded that the lifeguard union’s “structure, history and culture … reveals systemic dysfunction in its management and accountability.”

Peter Stein, president of DC 37 Local 508 that represents lifeguard supervisors, “declined to schedule” an interview with investigators, the report noted, saying “he wanted to know why coverage of the lifeguards does not focus on their protection of people from drowning.”

Gothamist reported earlier this month that the lifeguard supervisors union operates a training program with unusually strict guidelines, and the city doesn’t allow outside certification for parks department lifeguards.

Former Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said the unions should be more flexible on certain requirements like allowing pool lifeguards to be certified by respected life saving organizations like the Red Cross or the YMCA.

New city lifeguards must take Local 508’s mandatory training sessions that begin in early spring, shutting out potential seasonal employees like college students coming to the city in the summer. Meanwhile, the YMCA and Red Cross run lifeguard certification classes year-round.

Benepe pointed out that almost every public pool in the city is 4 feet deep at most, because they were designed to be safe for nonswimmers.

“In other words, a lifeguard could walk to do a rescue,” he said. “You do still need to know the lifesaving techniques and how to keep people out of trouble and make sure no one's staying underwater too long. But you don't have to be a strong swimmer to rescue somebody from a pool that’s four feet deep – because you can literally walk to that person.”

But DC 37 President Henry Garrido said last week in an interview on WNYC that accepting outside certification from the Red Cross would “be putting more people at risk” even if it brings more potential lifeguards to the parks department.

“We ask the question, at what cost? If you do that, aren’t you putting more people at risk?” Garrido said. “I don’t personally think that we should be lowering the standards in order to recruit more lifeguards. I think what we should do is do a better job, pay them better, respect them better, treat them with more sense of being human beings.”

Both lifeguard unions are still negotiating with the city over terms and conditions of employment. Negotiations over pay were resolved in April — when the recruitment season for new lifeguards was nearly over.