NEW YORK — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a curious statement about the MLB lockout late Wednesday night, invoking everything from the war in Ukraine to stadium and restaurant workers.
“Major League Baseball and its related economic impacts are critical to the State of New York and to our pandemic recovery,” Hochul said. “New York is not only home to the league, but also to thousands of New Yorkers, including many in the Bronx and Queens, whose livelihoods depend on games happening at our stadiums as scheduled.”
Hochul’s statement was clueless, because even knowing the devastating impact of canceled games, those workers have consistently backed MLB players, who are currently locked out of doing their jobs.
UNITE HERE is the labor union that represents stadium workers in most MLB cities, including at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium. D. Taylor, the president of that union, said that his members backed baseball players to the hilt.
“UNITE HERE stands in solidarity with the baseball players that are currently locked out unfairly by the team owners,” Taylor said after opening day was postponed earlier this week. “It’s clear that the players are being squeezed out by greedy owners who could end this all if they were to just agree to the players’ reasonable demands ... it’s the tens of thousands of ballpark workers and members of the communities these teams play in that would feel the most harm by the owners’ greed.”
Earlier in the lockout, UNITE HERE made it clear that they were with the players no matter how long it took. “Lockouts are decisions that the richest few can make to pinch a penny,” the union said in a January statement. “You are right to demand better, and the labor movement supports you as you continue to hold the line.”
Even business owners, presumably the most sympathetic class to MLB’s owners, understand the root of the lockout. Yosef Abbadi, whose family has owned Ballpark Sport Shop by Yankee Stadium for years, told The City that he blamed the owners, not the players.
“I know players are like employees, and they have the right to get what they deserve,” Abbadi said. Players “are the ones that’s filling pockets and without the players, these owners and the commissioner are nothing — and without the fans, we’re nothing, because our business is from the fans.”
Or maybe Hochul is just being shameless. She said that she “spoke with the involved parties” and “urged them to come to the bargaining table with solutions.” But one of those parties, the owners, unilaterally locked out the other. The players are not on strike; the owners could lift the lockout today if they wanted. The owners didn’t go to the bargaining table for six weeks after locking the players out, and when they did, they tried to sneak new language past the players in the wee hours of the morning hoping they wouldn’t notice.
Hochul full well knows all of this. But MLB owners are a critical part of the $21 million she raised late last year, the most ever in one filing period by a candidate in New York state history. The Yankees gave Hochul $25,000 in December, according to the state Board of Elections. Alex Cohen, the wife of billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen, was one of a select few to give $69,700, the maximum allowed. Steve Cohen was not far behind, giving $67,000 to put the family total at an eye-popping $136,700. As Hochul would put it: “Play ball.”
