BOSTON, Mass.—When the New York Yankees arrived in Boston on the night of Oct. 4 before the first
game of their playoff series with the Red Sox fans, they crossed a picket line to stay at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, where workers had gone on strike the day before. “We think it’s outrageous,” Brian Lang, president of UNITE HERE Local 26, the union representing the 1,500 workers on strike at seven Marriott hotels in the Boston area, told MassLive. “In our view, what the Yankees did was an insult to all working people in Boston.” The Boston strike is one of several UNITE HERE is organizing against Marriott around the country. “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 the Major League Baseball Players Association said in a statement. Across the line separating Red Sox Nation from pinstripe turf, New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento said he was “disgusted” with Yankee management’s decision to have the team stay in a hotel where workers are on strike. Read more
