🗞️ NLRB Orders SeaWorld's Discovery Cove to Bargain With Its Divers
The National Labor Relations Board ordered Discovery Cove, the Orlando marine park owned by United Parks & Resorts, to recognize and bargain with a divers' union after finding the company's refusal unlawful.
The National Labor Relations Board has ruled against Sea World of Florida LLC, doing business as Discovery Cove, in a labor dispute stemming from a 2025 union election among the park's dive staff. In a decision issued July 22, 2026, the Board granted summary judgment in favor of its General Counsel, rejecting the company's argument that certain "dive supervisors" should be excluded from the bargaining unit as statutory supervisors.
The case dates to May 2025, when divers and dive technicians at Discovery Cove and its sister water park Aquatica voted unanimously to unionize with the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 30, forming the parks' first organized workforce. After the Regional Director certified the union and the Board later denied the company's request for review, Discovery Cove declined to bargain or provide requested payroll, scheduling and benefits data. Such a refusal is a recognized procedural route for employers seeking federal appellate review of an NLRB certification, since Board election rulings are not directly appealable.
In its decision, the Board found that the company had already litigated the supervisory status question in the representation proceeding and had not presented genuinely new evidence that would justify reopening the record. The Board also considered and rejected a series of constitutional and procedural arguments the company raised, including claims related to removal protections for Board members and administrative law judges, finding them unsupported by any showing of actual harm. The Board ordered Discovery Cove to bargain with the union on request and to furnish the requested information, and specified that the certification year will begin once good faith bargaining actually starts.
Key Points
- The bargaining unit covers associate divers, senior divers, dive supervisors, dive safety officers and dive technicians at Discovery Cove and Aquatica in Orlando.
- Discovery Cove contested the unit's composition, arguing dive supervisors function as statutory supervisors exempt from union coverage, a claim the Board had already rejected in the representation case.
- The company's attempt to introduce "newly discovered" evidence of supervisory status was unsuccessful because most of that evidence postdated the original hearing.
- The Board rejected the company's constitutional and procedural defenses, including arguments concerning Board member removal protections and Seventh Amendment claims.
- Discovery Cove acknowledged refusing to provide the union with wage, scheduling, benefits, training and discipline records, information the Board considers presumptively relevant to collective bargaining.
- The company must now bargain with the union and post a notice to employees describing their rights under federal labor law.
Primary Source Author: National Labor Relations Board (Chairman James R. Murphy; Members David M. Prouty and Scott A. Mayer)
Primary Source: Sea World of Florida LLC d/b/a Discovery Cove and International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 30, AFL-CIO, 375 NLRB No. 4, Case 12-CA-368374 (July 22, 2026)
Primary Source Link: www.nlrb.gov/case/12-CA-368374
