Hotel and Casino Workers Strike in Boston Over Labor Day Weekend
Workers at the Encore Boston Harbor plan to strike until a new contract is reached.
Pictured here are workers on the picket line outside the casino resort on September 8.
By Jordan Bradley
More than 1,300 Encore Boston Harbor casino and hotel workers walked off the job early on September 4.
The strike is ongoing and lasted through the holiday weekend, with workers holding a picket line outside the Encore hotel and resort, which is owned and operated by Wynn Resorts.
Workers have been without a contract since August 31 and are seeking wage increases, to maintain the benefit packages they had been offered in previous contracts, and “a reasonable expectation of job security,” according to the area hotel worker union, Unite Here Local 26.
The strike encompasses members of the Local 26 and Teamsters Local 25 unions, and total approximately 1,350 housekeepers, cooks, servers, bartenders, slot attendants, warehouse workers and drivers at the Everett, Massachusetts, resort.
Union members approved a strike on August 20, with more than 1,000 voting in favor of the strike, Local 26 said.
According to the unions, Encore Boston Harbor is the only casino resort that holds a 5-star rating in New England. The workers who earn that rating have been working under a contract that trails behind contracts for 42 hotels in downtown Boston also represented by Unite Here, Local 26 representatives said.
In the days since the strike began, Local 26 Communications Director Seth Ogilvie told USAE that the union has received reports that services provided at the casino have dwindled, and that staff are struggling to provide quality service to guests.
“I can tell you anecdotally—because I have obviously not been inside –but we are hearing that managers are struggling to provide the services even remotely close to a 1-star [casino,] let alone a 5-star casino,” Ogilvie said.
He added: “We’re hearing rumors that they’re pulling managers to do jobs, and also the dealers to do the jobs because they’re non-unionized employees that are there… We’re hearing that they’re asking them to also do like cocktails and things along those lines.”
The property took in $846.9 million in revenue” last year, “including $629.2 million from gaming, making it the fourth highest-grossing casino outside Nevada,” Local 26 said.
Multiple attempts to contact Encore Boston Harbor’s media team went unanswered.
However, in a statement provided to local news outlet WCVB, Encore representatives disputed union claims, saying that employees represented by Unite Here and the Teamsters unions have had wage and benefit increases of 36.8% in the last four years while company revenue has increased 1.9% over the same time period.
Encore and Wynn have also said “the average represented employee earns $95,000 annually in wages and benefits,” WCVB reported.
Oglivie said that number factors in “a lot of these super high earning tipped workers, and I think it’s important to remember that that money’s not coming from Wynn.
That money’s coming from the community.”
Despite statements from Encore to the contrary, union reps say Wynn has stopped coming to the bargaining table.
“We are committed to finding common ground that is fair, financially sustainable and protects jobs for the long term,” Encore said in a statement provided to WCVB.
However, Local 26 has “not heard back from Wynn since before the deadline for the contract passed,” Ogilvie said, “and long before the strike started.”
Union members plan to picket outside the casino resort 24-hours per day until a contract is reached, Oglivie said, and the union is asking the public not to stay or spend money at the Encore Boston Harbor hotel or casino as the strike continues.
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