While employers like hospitals, banks and even retail establishments have recently hiked their pay to attract new workers, some employees at Oriole Park at Camden Yards are still pushing to get wages above the state minimum of $12.50 per hour.

Unite Here Local 7, a union representing Maryland’s hotel, gaming and food service workers, is rallying for a $15 minimum wage for hospitality workers at Camden Yards, the home of the Baltimore Orioles, which contracts a firm called Delaware North to operate its dining services.

The union said it submitted its full proposal to the company in January after two years without negotiating wages, due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in the Orioles’ season being canceled in 2020 and being reduced to a partial season last year. But the company hasn’t returned its economic proposal to the union, despite saying it would do so earlier this month, according to Roxie Herbekian, Unite Here Local 7’s president.

Delaware North’s lack of cooperation has been unusual, Herbekian said, noting that most employers have been willing to bargain in good faith once reopening following pandemic closures. She also said that most employers in the hospitality sector are offering wages above the state minimum wage, like the Baltimore Convention Center, which offers its workers at least $15 an hour, and hotels in the area, which tend to offer at least that much.

“Most employers have recognized … it’s a tight labor market and in order to attract labor, they need...

Read Full Story: https://thedailyrecord.com/2022/05/23/camden-yards-workers-hope-to-join-other...