Photo: Kyle Bray/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Tensions are high at Fenway as Aramark and UNITE HERE Local 26 Union members attempt to agree upon a new deal by Friday, July 25. If not, concession workers said they will go on strike.
Since the start of the year, Fenway workers have been without a union deal, which has been causing quite a stir.
President of UNITE HERE Local 26, Carlos Aramayo, said there needs to be a change.
“Folks at the park are paid poverty wages, many people who start at the park have to make minimum wage to work their way up to 18 dollars and change,” said Aramayo. “That is not acceptable at America’s ballpark.”
This would be the first concession strike in the 123-year history of Fenway Park.
Aramayo added that neither side has come to any sort of agreement on new wages for workers, and wages at Fenway are almost 10 dollars per hour lower compared to those at Boston University.
“If you fly in here from Los Angeles this weekend, you want to have someone with a Boston accent serve you a Sam Adams,” Aramayo said. “That’s the people behind me, those folks need to be respected.”
Workers at the park are also worried about automated machines, like self-checkouts, taking away from their tips.
“From their perspective it’s like ‘oh who am I tipping now because I did all the work myself,” Amanda Savage, who’s worked at Fenway for 18 years said.
Charbel Salameh has run a beer stand at Fenway for 28 years and notices that tips are becoming harder to get.
“They’re the ones that do a lot behind the scenes that no one really sees,” Salameh said. “But if the warehouse doesn’t deliver us the product we need to do our job, there is no product.”
If a new deal is not agreed upon by Friday at noon, concession workers will strike throughout the weekend until new compromises are revisited.
WBZ NewsRadio’s Kyle Bray (@KyleBrayWBZ) reports.