200 members of the Yosemite National Park community—including off-duty rangers, climbers, and more—gathered on Saturday to protest the firing of SJ Joslin, the park’s beloved bat biologist. On Monday, employees in Yosemite and Sequioa-Kings Canyon national parks voted overwhelmingly to unionize.
“This isn’t only about SJ,” said one ranger. “It’s about whether every ranger feels safe speaking the truth about the challenges our parks face. If employees are intimidated into silence, the real losses won’t just be one fired federal employee. They’ll be the lands and histories that belong to all of us. We cannot and will not stand by while our friends and colleagues are targeted for speaking out.”
Earlier this month, the National Park Service fired SJ over a pride celebration they conducted in May, scaling the park’s famous El Capitan wall and unfurling a large trans pride flag. Displaying large flags on El Cap is a time-honored tradition among the park’s climbing community, and it remained a permitted activity up until the day after SJ unfurled their flag. Park management rules were amended the day following SJ’s celebration, then backdated to the previous day’s date. The Yosemite community says it considers this, “retaliation.”
Protestors marched with signs, and displayed them in front of public web cams in the area, where park rules still allow such activity.
“The whole Yosemite community is feeling this,” stated Jesse Chakrin, former supervisory ranger in the park. “We live, work, recreate, break bread, grieve and celebrate together. We watch each other’s kids grow up. We are a chosen family, and we’re standing with SJ because they are part of that family.”
The community is calling for SJ’s immediate reinstatement, and clearer protections for the first amendment rights of federal employees.
“Rangers aren’t just employees, they’re guardians of America’s most treasured places,” stated SJ. “As the Trump administration is attempting to privatize and gut protections to public lands, rangers need to feel empowered to speak out about threats. This firing is the administration trying to make public servants afraid to raise their voices.”
As I was first to report on Monday, employees in Yosemite and nearby Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park voted to unionize. As certified by the Federal Labor Relations Authority, over 97 percent of the votes were in favor of collective bargaining. Union members in those parks plan to negotiate for better pay, safer working conditions, and for a role in management decisions.
Following the vote’s success in those parks, staff in over 100 other parks plan to pursue unionization. I’ll bring you more reporting around that in the near future.
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Great news to hear they’ve unionized! Hooray!
This is great news Wes. Let's hope this unionization effort spreads to other parks.