Encore Boston Harbor Strike Stretches Into a Sixth Day

More than 1,300 housekeepers, cooks, dealers, bartenders, slot attendants and warehouse workers at Encore Boston Harbor remained off the job Wednesday, as a strike at the Everett casino resort stretched into its sixth day with no new bargaining session scheduled. The walkout, which began at 7 a.m. on September 4, has continued through Labor Day and into the work week, making it one of the longest hospitality strikes to hit greater Boston in recent years.

The workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 26 and Teamsters Local 25, walked out after their contract with casino operator Wynn Resorts expired at midnight on August 31 without a new agreement. Encore has kept the casino, hotel and restaurants open using managers and temporary replacement staff.

How the Standoff Began

The dispute has been building since contract talks opened in April. On August 20, the two unions' roughly 1,350 members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, and when the following Monday's deadline passed with no deal, workers set a picket line outside the casino's Broadway entrance. Roughly 300 people turned out for the first shift change, according to the Boston Globe, and the line has been staffed around the clock since.

At the center of the fight is pay. The unions are asking for a $10-an-hour raise over three years for non-tipped employees and $5 an hour for tipped workers, arguing it would bring Encore's wages in line with unionized hotels in downtown Boston. Local 26 says Wynn's counteroffer amounts to less than half of that, while also proposing to shift a larger share of health insurance costs onto employees and loosen job-security and minimum-hours guarantees that date to the casino's opening contract.

Encore Boston Harbor, a $2.6 billion resort the Massachusetts Gaming Commission licensed in 2014, opened on 33 acres along the Mystic River in June 2019. The property's real estate was sold to the real estate investment trust Realty Income in a 2023 sale-leaseback deal, though Wynn Resorts continues to operate the casino, hotel and restaurants and to employ the striking workers.

A Widening Gap in Pay and Profit

The union's numbers tell part of the story: Local 26 says its members' wages have risen roughly 40 percent over the past four years while the property's revenue has grown only about 2 percent in that span. Wynn Resorts' own second-quarter earnings filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows Encore Boston Harbor's operating revenue actually fell 3 percent year over year, to $209.3 million, while adjusted property earnings dropped 12.2 percent, to $56.1 million — a decline company executives attributed partly to a lower table-games win rate.

Regional labor data help explain why the union is pressing now. Greater Boston's leisure-and-hospitality sector added 7,300 jobs over the year ending in June, a 2.5 percent gain that outpaced nearly every other industry in the region, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Boston Area Economic Summary. At the same time, consumer prices in the Boston area were up 3.2 percent for the year as of May, with energy costs alone up 23 percent — inflation the unions say has outpaced what workers actually take home.

Voices From the Picket Line

Union leaders have framed the fight as a matter of parity with the rest of the city's hospitality workforce, more than 65 percent of which is unionized.

"The difference right now is about three bucks an hour, and what we don't understand is how can workers at a five-star casino be making less than workers at the Hampton Inn," said Laura Moye, executive vice president of UNITE HERE Local 26.

Icylyn Whittaker, a groundskeeper and Local 26 shop steward who has worked at Encore since it opened, put it more simply on the picket line: "It's not like we are asking for much. What we are asking for is the Boston standard." David Hernandez, a cocktail server and Everett resident, said the stakes extend beyond his own paycheck: "All that we make here stays in the community. We're here to win. We're asking for a fair demand."

Wynn has repeatedly said it wants a deal that keeps the property competitive as it faces pressure from casinos in neighboring states and from online betting. "We are committed to finding common ground that is fair, financially sustainable and protects jobs for the long term," the company said in a statement, adding that it "stand[s] ready to service our guests while we continue negotiations."

Everett Mayor Robert Van Campen walked the picket line over the weekend and issued his own statement urging both sides back to the table. "Encore is an important part of Everett," he said, "but so are the people who show up every day and make it successful. When Encore came to Everett years ago, the commitment was real jobs and good wages. My hope is that these parties can get back to the table and get this done so these folks can get back to work."

What Happens Next

Because the walkout is over economic terms — wages, benefits and staffing levels — rather than an accusation that Wynn broke labor law, the strikers fall into the category the National Labor Relations Board calls "economic strikers." Under the National Labor Relations Act, that status means the workers cannot be fired for striking, but it also means Wynn is legally free to keep operating with replacement workers indefinitely, and is not required to lay off those replacements to reinstate strikers immediately once a deal is reached.

No new bargaining session had been scheduled as of Monday, according to reporting by GBH News and NBC Boston, leaving both sides at an impasse as the strike heads into its second week. Teamsters Local 25, whose roughly 211 members handle warehouse, valet, cage and transportation duties at the property, has said it will continue picketing alongside Local 26 until a new contract is reached. Union leaders say they expect the dispute to draw fresh attention from labor organizations elsewhere in the region, several of which sent members to join the picket line over Labor Day weekend. For now, the casino remains open, the picket line remains staffed, and both sides say they are waiting for the other to move.