© Darren Yamashita | 2020 Aug 1
Unite Here Local 2, a union representing about 930 concessions workers at Oracle Park, will hold a vote on Saturday to determine if a strike is authorized, after workers say they haven’t received a raise in three years. Additionally, Local 2 says more than 20 workers have contracted COVID-19 since the stadium reopened back in June. SF Gate first reported on the strike vote.
“The Giants have failed to mandate and/or enforce masks and social distancing at concourse concessions stands, private suites, and more, and food service workers frequently have to deal with maskless guests who are often drinking,” a statement from UNITE HERE read, in part.
Adding insult to injury, workers have to work 10 events per month to qualify for health insurance. Recent months have seen less than 10 events at Oracle Park, a combination of the Giants being mostly on the road and few other events being hosted at the ballpark.
Lowering that threshold to nine games is just one of a number of requests the workers say the Giants have ignored. That includes a request for a wage increase, especially in the wake of the elevated risk service workers now face with the ballpark reopened, and no vaccine mandate in effect.
Complicating matters is the fact that the Giants don’t directly employ the concession workers. The Giants subcontract a company called Bon Appetit to run their ballpark concession operations, similar to how most pro teams operate. In the past, the Giants have framed disputes as an issue between concession workers and the company they directly work for. Some concession workers don’t see it that way.
“It’s a negotiation between us and Bon Appetit, certainly, but the Giants hold the cards here,” union President Anand Singh told SF Gate. “If the Giants were to decide today that workers should receive $3 an hour more, they could direct their subcontractors to make it so. That’s where the money is coming from, their own coffers. The Giants are in control of everything at that ballpark.”
This issue is not without precedent. Giants concession workers went on strike in 2013 over a similar dispute with Giants’ former subcontractor, Centerplate. In that instance, Giants workers went on strike for one game before they were able to negotiate for higher wages and other benefits.
Ballpark workers and others will meet at the Office of ILWU Local 34 located at 4 Berry St. on Saturday from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., just before the Dodgers-Giants game, according to KRON 4.
A yes vote would allow workers to walk out at any time.
For more details on this story, check out Alex Schultz’s piece for SF Gate.