Employees at Boston’s historic Fenway Park have been working this baseball season without a new union contract in place, and now 95% of the workers have voted to strike.
According to Front Office Sports, the union’s previous contract expired on Dec. 31, 2024. Since that time, Fenway Park employees and Aramark, the food service and facilities provider that manages Fenway along with several other MLB stadiums across the country, have been in stalemated negotiations.
Employees at Boston’s historic Fenway Park have been working this baseball season without a new union contract in place, and now 95% of the workers have voted to strike.
According to Front Office Sports, the union’s previous contract expired on Dec. 31, 2024. Since that time, Fenway Park employees and Aramark, the food service and facilities provider that manages Fenway along with several other MLB stadiums across the country, have been in stalemated negotiations.
Carlos Aramayo, the union president, told Front Office Sports that the two most prominent issues are wages and automation.
Fenway’s employees say they are paid a lower wage than other ballpark employees in other states. They have also expressed concerns with Aramark’s push toward automation, citing both the historic value of human interaction at Fenway and the risk of serving underage or overserved patrons alcohol.
“We sit in bargaining, and it almost feels like we’re not having the same conversation, or that we’re living in two different universes,” said Aramayo. “There’s been very little engagement at all from the company on the automation issue. … And on wages, they’ve made proposals, but they are dollars off of where we need to get to, to get to what we believe is the standard we have established here in Boston and frankly the standard that exists at other ballparks.”
Striking employees at Fenway Park would include concession workers, cooks, souvenir salespeople and catering staff. The employees have urged Red Sox fans to boycott food and beverages if a strike were to occur.Â
“Our hope is that this gets us to a negotiated settlement, but especially seeing the results of the vote this weekend, I think people are really prepared to walk out,” Aramayo said. “I think we’re looking at a real potential strike situation here at Fenway.”
The Fenway Park employees’ union has one more meeting scheduled for next week. Depending on the outcome of that conversation, the staff could go on strike before July or, as they are hoping, reach a deal with Aramark.
