Should the Arizona Diamondbacks stay at a hotel picketed by striking workers?
The union representing those workers says no. In a public appeal Thursday night, Unite Here Local 11 asked the baseball team to stay instead at a hotel that has agreed to a new contract with its workers.
The Diamondbacks are in town to face the Dodgers in the National League Division Series and, according to the union, are staying at the JW Marriott Hotel at LA Live. The teams work out at Dodger Stadium on Friday, with games scheduled there Saturday and Monday.
Maria Hernandez, the union spokeswoman, said the Major League Baseball Players Assn. had asked Major League Baseball for the Diamondbacks to change hotels. The MLBPA provided MLB with a list of alternative hotels the team could consider, according to a players union official familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment publicly.
In MLB, teams generally make their own travel arrangements. A Diamondbacks spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment, and an MLB spokesman declined to comment.
Lionel Messi, perhaps soccer’s greatest player, and his Inter Miami team decided not to stay at the Fairmont Miramar, where workers were picketing, two days before a game last month against LAFC.
The Diamondbacks did not know they would be headed to Los Angeles until late Wednesday, when they beat the Brewers in Milwaukee to advance to the division series. Hernandez said the union believed the Diamondbacks would be able to move their entire traveling party on short notice.
“If Lionel Messi and Inter Miami can change their hotels to support workers,” Hernandez said, “what’s stopping them?”
Bill Shaikin
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