As the New York Yankees arrived in Boston ahead of a play-off showdown this weekend, the team was greeted with more than the regular showing of disapproving Red Sox fans, but a wave of striking Marriott hotel workers.
The Yankees, who are in town for the first few games of the American League Division Series, crossed picket lines to check into the Ritz-Carlton in Boston Thursday night, according to Local 26, the union representing hotel workers.
"We think it's outrageous," Local 26 President Brian Lang told MassLive. "In our view, what the Yankees did was an insult to all working people in Boston."
The high-end Ritz-Carlton in Boston is one of seven hotels in Boston operated by Marriott International where workers went on strike this week to demand a fairer contract with better pay, job security and stronger benefits according to union representatives.
The strike, which started Wednesday, marks the first hotel walkout in Boston's history. Lang said strikers were even stronger the second day, adding, "We win the strike by winning it one day at a time."
News of the Red Sox rival's decision to cross strikers in Boston reached those at top at the Major Baseball League, too. The MLB Player's Association echoed cries by Lang and Local 26 in Boston:
"From what we understand, these workers have been trying to negotiate a fair contract for more than six months. They deserve to be heard and deserve our support," a spokesperson for MLBPA said in a statement.
In the first-ever hotel strike in Boston, more than 1,500 unionized hotel workers took to the streets to demand Marriott International provide better pay, job security with health insurance and retirement benefits.
"What we're faced with is representatives of Marriott who seem to be fixated on doing business in the old way, when the industry wasn't in the process of rapid change," said Local 26 President Brian Lang, adding, "The old way just isn't working."
The strike includes workers from across seven different hotels in Boston: Aloft Boston Seaport District, the Element Boston Seaport District, the Ritz-Carlton Boston, the Sheraton Boston, the W Hotel Boston, the Westin Boston Waterfront and the Westin Copley Place. The hotels remain open and staffed during the strike, Marriott spokespeople said.
Thousands of Marriott hotel workers in other major U.S. cities, like Detroit, Seattle, San Francisco and elsewhere, have voted to authorize similar strikes.
Local 26 President Lang said that for many workers, there is a lack of stable job security, which subsequently leads to the absence of health insurance and proper retirement benefits.
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