The people who make the Oracle Park experience what it is are tired of going unheard. The managers, cashiers, chefs, cleaning staff and other behind-the-scenes workers love their jobs, but feel they deserve better.
The employees haven’t gotten a raise in three years. They’ve worked through the pandemic and many feel unsafe during games when many fans don’t adhere to social distancing and masking guidelines; the Giants also don’t require proof of vaccination for fans. They also lose health care benefits when they don’t work at least 10 events a month, which has become more common due to fewer non-baseball events held at Oracle Park with COVID-19.
At every turn, they say the Giants have ignored complaints or avoided negotiating, even as 20 employees have contracted COVID-19 since Oracle Park reopened, union president Anand Singh told KNBR.
“We’re ready to do this,” Zoila Orellana, who’s worked concessions for the Giants for 20 years, said.
Saturday, Orellana and the concessions workers, represented by the Unite Here Local 2 union, voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. Approximately 86.7% of active stadium workers turned out for Saturday’s vote, with 96.7% of them voting in favor of a labor strike.
The next step, Singh said, is to ramp up negotiations further with food service management company Bon Appetit and, they hope, the San Francisco Giants. After Sunday, there are two home-stands before the playoffs begin, and Singh said a strike is “very possible” if the Giants don’t meet them at the negotiating table.
“We have negotiations set up with Bon Appetit,” Singh said. “We’ve demanded that at least at some point in these negotiations, the Giants come in and address our concerns on health and safety. They’ve so far been unwilling to do that. We’re hoping that they turn around and do the right thing and actually come to the table and meet with workers on these issues.”
The Giants provided KNBR with a comment, saying in part that they “operate our venue in compliance with local and state health requirements.”
“Bon Appétit Management Company and Local 2 are currently engaged in collective bargaining negotiations,” the statement read. “We encourage both sides to work productively to reach an agreement as soon as possible. The Giants make the health and safety of everyone working and visiting Oracle Park a top priority. We operate our venue in compliance with local and state health requirements.”
Singh noted other locally based companies, such as Google and Facebook, have paid employees hazard pay during the pandemic.
“We certainly have an expectation of certain employers who have the means and the wherewithal to step up in this moment and not make workers’ lives more difficult,” Singh said. “Companies like Facebook and Google continue to pay their workers during the pandemic, even though their offices were shut down. That’s what employers, especially locally based employers, should be doing in moments like this. Recognizing they have an obligation to their workers and to the community. And we expect that of the Giants.”
The issues the workers are worried about are varied. Bon Appetit hasn’t awarded a pay raise since 2018, despite an average wage of about $20 an hour. “Workers at the ballpark already live on the margins,” Singh said. Singh added the union asked for hazard pay at the start of the season, but were rebuffed and assured the ballpark would be safe.
That, they argue, hasn’t been the case.
“I’m afraid,” Orellana said. “Fans come, they don’t want to use their masks. We’re walking around, and they don’t care about us.”
Singh added the health and safety enforcement is more of a Giants organization issue than a Bon Appetit one. It’s the club’s responsibility to put in place and enforce COVID-19 rules, but the Giants “have no interest in engaging directly with us,” he said.
Some professional sports teams, including the Toronto Blue Jays, have required fans to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter the stadium. San Francisco has not.
During the pandemic, concessions workers are also especially worried about the health care benefit agreement currently in place. Workers need to work 10 events per month to become eligible for health care contributions. In months without baseball and even some with — because events have been scaled down during the pandemic — workers may miss out by a day or two. They’re negotiating to lower the threshold from 10 to nine per month.
Orellana and Jeannette Copeland-Estrada have both been working concessions for the Giants since they played in Candlestick Park. They both love their jobs, but voted to go on strike.
A strike isn’t unprecedented for Unite Here 2 or the Giants concessions workers specifically. The stadium workers went on a one-day strike in 2013, Marriott hotel workers in 2018 — also represented by Unite Here 2 — won a salary increase and other protections after a nine-week walkout.
“This is not a symbolic act,” Singh said. “This is about getting ready for a strike. Many of these workers who were working at the time in 2013 also engaged in a one-day strike back in that season. It’s not something that’s foreign to our union. We ran a strike for two months at the Marriott in 2018. And it’s not something that’s foreign to this set of workers. They’ve struck the ballpark before. And if that’s what we need to do to get justice, that’s what we’re going to do.”