As the Phillies host the annual Fan Appreciation Night on Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park, a large contingent of concession workers at the ballpark will remain on strike.
Members of the workers’ union Unite Here Local 274, which represents over 4,000 Aramark concessions and retail employees, including cooks, bartenders and beer vendors, authorized a strike at all three Philadelphia sports stadiums in the South Philadelphia complex on Sunday night. Monday marked the first time striking employees were on the picket line before a Phillies game.
The union held two strikes earlier in the year, including one before a Philadelphia 76ers playoff game at the Wells Fargo Center. Employees have been working without a new contract since March.
Over a hundred union members gathered outside the center field gate on Hartranft St. on Monday hours before the Phillies clinched their first NL East title since 2011. A large inflatable “Scabby the Rat” was placed just outside the tent where Aramark workers are told to enter the ballpark for their shifts. Union leaders and local politicians addressed the contingent of striking workers.
“While we’re out in the 100 degree weather busting our asses working, they [management] are sitting in air conditioning,” union leader and Aramark employee Samantha Spector said. “We should not have to argue about getting a fan while they’re sitting in air conditioning.”
“How you going to be slinging $16 pizzas and not paying your workers what they deserve, right?” State Rep. Rick Krajewski from West Philadelphia said. “How are you going to be charging $12 bucks for beer and not giving your workers healthcare, right?”
In a statement to Phillies Nation, Aramark spokesman Chris Collom said the company’s plan to serve fans at the games will not be impacted by the strike.
“Aramark remains committed to delivering outstanding fan experiences. Our contingency plans last night, and throughout the strike, ensure that all services for events across the facilities will be open and available to guests as usual. We want to thank the more than 800 dedicated Aramark union employees who crossed the picket line at all three facilities to work their regular shifts last night, September 24, and the more than 640 that chose to work on September 23. Our ability to serve fans was not impacted by the strike nor by the union’s boycott campaign at any of the facilities either night.”
The Phillies also said they do not anticipate interruptions.
One of the main issues at the negotiating table is how hours are counted towards eligibility for company-provided health insurance plans. Hours worked are not aggregated across all three venues, so most employees who work over 40 hours a week are not eligible for health insurance. The union told the Philadelphia Inquirer that only 20 Aramark employees at Citizens Bank Park get year-round insurance from the company.
Outside of the core issues, longtime employees have grown frustrated with working conditions and changes made at the ballpark since returning to work after the COVID-19 shutdown.
“This used to be a really great and fun place to work,” Pass and Stow server Ashley Brady, 37, said. “The morale is just down.”
How did it get to this point?
“Years of penny raises,” Brady said. “Years of denying offering healthcare. Years of unfair working conditions.”
“When we came back from COVID, we went cashless, so a lot of our livelihood was taken away,” Randi Trent, 43, a server in the CP Rankin club who has worked at Aramark for 24 years, said. “That was really what started to push us to move forward and strike.”
Citizens Bank Park along with many other major sports venues across the country stopped accepting cash as a form of payment when fans were allowed back into the ballpark in 2021. It was originally pushed as a way to limit points of contact between fans and employees during the pandemic, but has since become a cost-cutting measure. As Brady noted, with venues being cashless, Aramark does not have to employee contractors to handle large sums of cash or maintain a cash room staffed with employees.
For servers like Brady and Trent, who both make around $9-an-hour, cashless payments are hurting their ability to earn through tips.
“It saves them money, but it takes it out of our pockets when you’re only offering three different tip percentages with the highest being 20%,” Brady said. “For convenience, that’s all people would hit. With cash, people would throw money at you. Now you’re kind of cutting us because you’re only giving us certain options and it’s just bad. So then we fought and won the tip line for the workers, but the deal was that all credit card tips had to be split with everyone in the stand.”
Brady and Trent worked together for years at the old Harry the K’s Broadcast Bar & Grille, a fan-favorite sit down restaurant named after the legendary late Phillies broadcaster. The restaurant, which was located in left field, closed and was transformed into the Miller Lite Liberty Landing in 2021. Brady was reassigned to Pass and Stow, a restaurant located in the old McFadden’s Ballpark near the third base gate. Trent was moved to the CP Rankin Club, the luxury seating area behind home plate formerly known as the Diamond Club.
“Where we used to work at Harry’s, it would be busy the whole game,” Brady said. “Pass and Stow is like a glorified sports bar. As soon as the game starts, it’s a ghost town. No one comes in after the national anthem. They make changes – I’m not saying they have to consult us, but some sort of consideration and conversation would be nice, you know, when making huge changes.”
“‘Oh it’s air conditioned. Blah blah blah’. You go down there now. They open those doors. It’s so hot people can’t even breathe down there,” Trent said. “We’re sweating. They claim it’s fine dining, but you’re just sweating down there. The working conditions are not that good.”
The strike comes at arguably the busiest time of the Philadelphia sports calendar. The Phillies’ regular season home schedule concludes Wednesday night, but they are likely to open postseason play at Citizens Bank Park on Oct. 5. The Eagles have one home game scheduled on Oct. 13 and the Flyers and Sixers begin their seasons in October as well.
As the Phillies get ready to say thanks to the more than three million fans that came through the turnstiles this season, the union is urging fans to enjoy the game, but stay away from the Aramark concession stands and retail locations.
“Aramark has been the Phillies’ food and beverage supplier since the Vet days,” Brady said. “We would really appreciate some support. We’ve been supporting the team. We are some of the team’s biggest fans. I mean we breathe, live and die by the team. We are here every single game. Every single year. Up or down. Some support the other way would be nice.”
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