NEW York Yankees delivered a “slap in the face to all Bostonians” on Thursday night by crossing a hotel strike picket line.

Boston hotel cleaners, cooks, bar staff and countless other employees are on strike demanding more stable hours, protection from job losses due to automation and new sexual harassment protocols.

The Yankees arrived in Boston before their play-off match against the Boston Red Sox last night but, instead of checking a list of socially responsible union hotels nearby, continued to check in to the Boston Ritz-Carlton with striking workers chanting: “Don’t check in! Check out!” 

Boston union Unite Here Local 26, which represents the hundreds of striking workers, slammed the Yankees and president Brian Lang urged other MLB teams to avoid Marriott hotels and properties.

“We understand that there’s a very intense rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, but quite frankly we’re a little outraged they would take it out on working class people who are out here sacrificing to improve their livelihoods. This is a slap in the face to all Bostonians.

“The Red Sox would never spit on their fans the way the Yankees are.

“We believe just like [former Red Sox star] David Ortiz said: ‘This is our city, we’re proud of it and who are they to be coming in and spitting on a message that we’re trying to bring through for all the people of Boston?’”

https://twitter.com/unitehere/status/1047995371333533696

The MLB Players Association backed the strikers and condemned the action of the players.

“From what we understand, these workers have been trying to negotiate a fair contract for more than six months. They deserve to be heard and deserve our support.”

Workers at seven Marriott-owned hotels began the strike on Wednesday in what union organisers said was that city’s first hotel union strike.

Unite Here Local 26 has rallied its workers around the phrase, “One job should be enough.”

Strikes began in San Francisco, San Diego, Detroit, Seattle, Oakland and Honolulu on Thursday after union members overwhelmingly voted to strike last month.

New York’s American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO) president Mario Cilento said he was “disgusted” with the team’s management, saying: “As a lifelong Yankee fan and a proud New Yorker, I am disgusted the management of a team representing the strongest union town in America would choose a hotel where workers are on strike.

“Make no mistake, despite the Yankee organisation’s callous decision to cross a picket line, New York’s labour movement stands in solidarity with the strikers and supports all working men and women across the country fighting for fairness and dignity at their jobs.”