Concession workers at Fenway Park could walk off the job during the Boston Red Sox’s upcoming series against the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
Unite Here Local 26 has given food and beverage provider Aramark until 12 p.m. ET on Friday to offer the stadium’s hospitality staffers a new contract. Should Aramark miss the deadline, the unionized workers will walk off the job during the three-game set this weekend.
The union, which represents concession employees at the stadium as well as other hospitality workers throughout Boston, on June 15 authorized a strike that could be called at any point during the MLB season. At the time, Aramark said it had contingency plans in place should the normal staffers walk off the job.
The Red Sox forwarded a request for comment to Aramark, which said it intends “to keep working with the union toward a settlement that works for everyone. In the event of a strike, we have contingency plans in place to ensure that services are not interrupted.”
The most recent bargaining talks took place last Tuesday, though the two sides remain far apart on key issues.
In addition to a desire for higher wages, one of the biggest worries for Local 26 is the use of self-service machines that Aramark implemented at Fenway back in 2023. Aramark installed six machines created by Mashgin—two self-checkout units that dispense beer and four self-checkout popcorn stations. Employees are concerned that the machines could make them expendable by minimizing the human interaction they say adds to the experience of making Fenway “America’s most beloved ballpark.”
Mashgin’s machines are deployed at 20 of the 30 MLB ballparks in addition to at least 120 more sports venues, at least 100 hospitals and more than 3,000 convenience stores. In April, the company said that during the 2024 season, it “delivered a median transaction time of under 15 seconds across over 3.6 million transactions and $88 million in concession sales.”
In a union Zoom call with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) last week, the former presidential candidate highlighted that interaction when talking about a visit to Fenway last year when the Red Sox were taking on the Dodgers. He followed up that Zoom invite with a scathing letter to Aramark CEO John J. Zillmer and Red Sox owner John Henry, calling out the valuations of both the company and team and expressing concern over the AI-powered self-checkout units.
“If Aramark can afford to pay you $18.7 million in compensation and provide nearly $100 million in dividends for your wealthy shareholders,” the senator wrote to Zillmer, “it can afford to pay all of your workers a living wage and not threaten to take away their jobs and their income with faceless Mashgin touchscreen computers.”
Sanders cited the team’s valuation, saying that it has gone up by over $4 billion since Henry bought the team in 2002 for $380 million. The Red Sox rank third in Sportico’sMLB franchise valuations at $6.03 billion, with a $5.22 billion valuation for the team itself and $810 million for team-related business and real estate, including Fenway Park.
Local 26 also appealed to Henry in an open letter emailed to Fenway Sports Group, the Red Sox’s holding company, on Tuesday evening, asking for him and leadership at FSG to intervene. “Mr. Henry, Fenway Park is your house,” the letter said. “We’re asking you … to intervene. We’re asking you to tell Aramark to bring reasonable proposals to the table that recognize our value and our role in making Fenway thrive.”
Because concession work at Fenway is seasonal, the union said a sustained indefinite strike would have presented too many obstacles for members who are part-time workers at the ballpark. There are no definitive dates for the next potential strike if union members are off for the full Dodgers series.
The Red Sox have a scheduled off day on Thursday before the Dodgers series opens on Friday. The team will be on the road for a three-game set in Minnesota before opening the month of August with a six-game homestand against Houston and Kansas City.
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