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…
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