Roughly 1,300 union workers remain off the job at Encore Boston Harbor in Everett as the strike enters its second week.
During an Everett City Council meeting on Monday night, Everett Mayor Robert Van Campen passed a resolution in support of the union members who are on strike.
“Encore wants to call themselves Encore Boston, but they don’t want to pay Boston rates. I think it’s time to tell Encore we’ve had enough,” said Van Campen during the meeting. “Pay the people. Respect the city of Everett. We gave them a deal and a half. An $8 million profit, and they can’t pay a fair wage.”
The union says there’s been no progress on negotiations with casino owner Wynn Resorts, and that the strike has started affecting operations and increasing wait times for customers across the hotel and casino.
Jason Lopes, a business agent with Teamsters Local 25, said he thinks service levels are down, and customers aren’t happy.
“Hopefully it gets their [Encore Boston Harbor’s] attention, and they want to bring people back to work, which will then make the customers happy again,” he said. “But until that happens, they’re going to see poor service, they’re going to see longer wait times at the window and that affects everybody’s experience.”
A spokesperson for Wynn Resorts said in a statement that the casino is “open and welcoming guests, who continue to enjoy the experience they expect from our resort.”
The spokesperson said the company is focused on reaching an agreement through negotiations “that is fair, financially sustainable and protects jobs for the long term.”
The workers, who are represented by UNITE HERE Local 26 and Teamsters Local 25, took to the picket line on Sept. 4 after they overwhelmingly voted last month to authorize a strike if a new labor contract with casino owner Wynn Resorts wasn’t reached by Aug. 31.
Workers want a wage increase of $10 over three years for non-tipped employees and $5 for tipped employees. Currently, wages for hourly employees range from $15 to $32, according to the union, which says the across-the-board increase would put Encore employees level with other five-star hotels in and around Boston.
Both unions are also pushing to continue job security protections and healthcare benefits that were established in their previous contract.
Jennifer Carnazzo, who works in Encore’s call center, said “it’s stressful” that there hasn’t been any negotiations since the strike began.
“It’s overwhelming…I think a lot of us are getting worried,” she said. “We have families, the bills don’t go away. We just want somebody to meet us halfway at least. We deserve what everybody else gets paid in the area.”
The resort and casino has remained open during the strike. The company says it is operating with management and non-union employees while negotiations continue.
Jeremy Martins, a pastry cook at Encore, said a few of the restaurants have also shut down since all of the workers are on strike.
“They started to look for some temporary staff, seasonal staff mostly for the beverage areas,” he said. “A few other positions have opened up that are more salary-oriented to try to help cover the gaps from the union people not being there.”
Carnazzo said with how things are looking now, she thinks the strike could continue through the rest of the month.
“I’m hoping it doesn’t go through October, but it is a possibility,” she said “I’m hoping by the end of this month at least, they can come to some kind of an agreement where we can get back to work.”
But Martins said he thinks the strike could last longer than that.
“Personally, I can see this going until it snows, just based on the current negotiating posture,” he said. “It’s all part of the process, negotiations don’t happen overnight. It takes time for both sides to come to an agreement, so it’ll just take some more time.”
Carnazzo said “it feels good” to know they have the city’s support.
“There’s no division. We have all kinds of people supporting us,” she said. “The faster we get back to work, obviously, the better, because it’s a lot.”
