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Play Ball? Los Angeles Dodgers Criticized For Crossing Picket Line in Boston


Readers that are avid baseball fans have probably watched the first two games of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox.  As much as I would like to talk about the games themselves, this is not necessarily the right blog for that discussion.  With that being said, there has been quite a bit of rancor this week in regard to some off the field events involving the Dodgers.  In particular, I am talking about tension that has arisen in regard to where the Dodgers are staying while in Boston for the start of the World Series.  (Yes, that has become a major issue).  

For those unaware, many hotel workers at Marriott have gone on strike recently and set up picket lines at Marriott properties across the country to advocate for better wages and better working conditions.  It turns out that the Dodgers are staying at a Ritz-Carlton (a Marriott property) while in Boston that just so happens to have a picket line in front of the hotel.  Hoping to avoid a public spectacle, when the players arrived at the hotel earlier this week, they entered through a back door rather than the front door of the hotel.  (All Major League players are eligible for membership in the Major League Baseball Players Association.  As a result, the assumption held by many was that the players would not dare cross a picket line set up by ‘fellow’ union members, albeit both the hotel workers and Major Leagueurs belong to different unions).  Labor leaders immediately siezed upon this news as an opportunity to criticize the Dodgers organization and its players for ‘abandoning’ the fight of the hotel chain’s workers (rather than showing solidarity and refusing to cross the picket line).

Whether this story will gain much traction remains to be seen.  It is worth noting that the New York Yankees previously crossed a picket line earlier this season.  Although that act was similarly not well received by organized labor, it does not appear to have tarnished the Yankees, the organization, or its players, to a significant degree.  For the sake of the Dodgers, given how the last two games have gone, they could use a bit of good news heading into game three back in Los Angeles.


For additional information:  http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2018/10/hotel_workers_blast_dodgers_for_crossing_picket_line

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