Friday Union Update: D-Backs Cross the Picket
Th Arizona Baseball Team is Staying at an LA Hotel Being Boycotted by Striking Staff
Here’s a storyline I was not expecting in this year’s National League Division Playoffs, one that explodes the argument that sports and politics are completely unrelated: The Arizona Diamondbacks are crossing a UNITE HERE picket line by staying at the JW Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles.
As Bill Baer wrote on his “Baer in Mind” Substack:
Workers at JW Marriott, as well as several other hotels, went on strike in early July to fight for better pay as well as improvements to healthcare and retirement benefits. The workers have requested a boycott of the JW Marriott until they are able to reach a fair contract.
UNITE HERE Local 11 posted this to their website and to X (formerly Twitter):
As the Times points out, “Lionel Messi, perhaps soccer’s greatest player, and his Inter Miami team decided not to stay at the Fairmont Miramar, where workers were picketing, two days before a game last month against LAFC.”
The D-Backs could — and should — follow suit. UNITE HERE spokesperson Maria Hernandez told the Los Angeles Times that the MLBPA “had asked Major League Baseball for the Diamondbacks to change hotels.” The Times’ story adds that the “MLBPA provided MLB with a list of alternative hotels the team could consider, according to a players union official familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment publicly.” The D-Backs “did not immediately return a message seeking comment, and an MLB spokesman declined to comment,” the Times said.
The D-Backs’ decision on this should be a reminder that baseball is a corporate game. While its players are paid far better than workers in most industries, it is run by the very rich, who not only have little concern for workers but often are hostile to efforts by the working class to empower themselves. UNITE HERE represents low-wage service workers — housekeepers, cooks, bellmen — without whom the hotel industry cannot function, and without whom the stadiums used by Major League Baseball also cannot function.
The D-Backs, in forcing their players to cross the picket, are sending a message about their priorities to the stadium workers back home in Phoenix. Arizona is a right-to-work state, meaning union shops are prohibited. Right-to-work laws undercut union power by “mak(ing) it optional for workers covered by a union contract to help pay for the expenses that the union incurs while protecting the rights of all employees,” according to literature from one AFSCME local.
Contrary to claims from its supporters, right to work offers no protection or economic benefits for workers. In fact, studies show that these deceptively titled laws drive down wages, benefits, and overall living standards for everyone. And research reveals that right-to-work laws do not create jobs or improve a state’s business climate.
MLBPA should take a stronger stand on this, because it’s clear MLB will not. The workers cleaning players’ rooms and carrying their bags deserve at least that.