By Tim Redmond
JULY 18, 2014 – In a major victory for local labor, the hotel workers’ union has reached a deal with the concession company at AT&T park, ending a boycott and giving workers significant pay and benefit hikes.
Members of UNITE HERE Local 2 approved the deal by more than 90 percent, union President Mike Casey told me today.
“They’re just delighted. It’s a great contract,” Casey said.
The contract with Centerplate, which contacts with the Giants to serve food and drinks at the ballpark, gives workers raises of up to $1.40 an hour the first year and 40 cents the next. It ties future wages to the pay increases at the city big unionized hotels.
The contract runs to 2019 and includes health-care security for workers and their families. Centerplate with also double its contributions to worker pension plans.
Among the most important provisions is successorship language that ensures all workers will keep their jobs – and union representation – if Centerplate is replaced with another vendor.
And there’s language protecting the rights of immigrant workers.
Casey said that community support – and the boycott that’s been going on since at least last year – made “a huge difference.”
He also complimented the local management at Centerplate. “They are decent people,” he said. “Good for them for stepping up to the plate. There are very few ballparks in America that provide health care coverage for their workers.”
The contract dispute offered an interesting wrinkle: While the Giants have won two World Series victories, sold out more than 250 straight games, and become one of the most valuable baseball franchises in the country, workers at Centerplate have been struggling.
The Giants don’t pay the ballpark workers, so the team can claim it has no responsibility for the labor problems. But the Giants contract with Centerplate mandates that about 50 cents on every dollar sold goes back to the team – money that, indirectly, comes from the workers who make a tiny, tiny fraction of even the lowest-paid Giant player’s salary.
