Detroit — Detroit was hailed as “strike city” Thursday as striking casino, health insurer and auto workers marched downtown and rallied with labor leaders and other supporters of their movement.
“Hey hey, ho ho! Corporate greed has got to go!” was one of several rallying cries that workers chanted as they marched toward Hart Plaza, where they gathered despite rainy conditions for a program featuring remarks from Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, UAW Vice President Mike Booth, Teamsters General Secretary Fred Zuckerman, striking workers and others.
The event, billed as Detroit’s March for Workers’ Rights and Economic Justice, was sponsored by a coalition of labor unions including the Michigan AFL-CIO, the United Auto Workers, Unite Here, the Teamsters, SEIU Michigan, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and others. Participants marched from starting points near MGM Grand Detroit and Hollywood Casino at Greektown.
“Don’t gamble our future,” was another rallying cry, inspired by some 3,700 Detroit casino workers who went on strike earlier this week.
Workers walked off the job at noon Tuesday after negotiations failed to reach new contracts. Dealers, cleaning staff, food and beverage workers, valets, engineers and others are on strike at MGM Grand, MotorCity Casino Hotel and Hollywood Casino at Greektown.
The Detroit Casino Council — which includes the UAW, Unite Here Local 24, Teamsters Local 1038, Operating Engineers Local 324 and the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and represents the workers — has said it wants wages that keep up with inflation, retirement security, technology protections and other gains.
Among the striking workers was Destiny Jackson, 20, of Detroit who works in the kitchen at MGM Grand Detroit.
“What brings me out here today is the low income,” said Jackson, who said she makes about $16.50 an hour. Jackson said she feels overworked and underpaid and wants to see “everything” addressed in a new contract.
“It’s hard,” she said, to get by on her current income. “You’ve really got to watch what you’re doing with each check.”
In a letter to employees earlier this week, Matt Buckley, president and chief operating officer of MGM Resorts Midwest Group, said the company has made six proposals to the union, including the current offer with “the single largest pay increase in the history of MGM Grand Detroit,” and that it will “continue to negotiate with the union to reach an agreement that is good for all parties.”
Officials from the three Detroit casinos have said they are bargaining in good faith to reach fair contracts, and that casino operations will continue.
MGM Grand Detroit says on its website that it “will remain open this week and beyond” and is “making every effort to ensure that our guests are not inconvenienced by this matter.”
“We are disappointed by the decision of the Detroit Casino Council as we have made generous, progressive settlement offers that position our team members and business for sustainable success,” said Jeff Morris, vice president of public affairs for Penn Entertainment, which owns Hollywood Casino at Greektown. “We will remain open for business to serve our customers and are committed to continued good-faith bargaining with the Detroit Casino Council to resolve the issues at hand as soon as possible.”
The crowd assembled at Hart Plaza on Thursday also heard from numerous striking casino workers who urged people not to visit the venues during the strike and highlighted their efforts in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic to reopen the casinos and keep them running, despite risks to their own health and safety.
“Workers sacrificed their raises. They sacrificed their health and their safety in order to keep those casinos open,” said Gwen Mills, secretary-treasurer of the Unite Here union, adding that workers expected their employers to make up for it later. “But there was no deal. That promise was broken. And we are on strike right now because we must create a new social contract where workers can thrive.”
Meanwhile, about 1,100 UAW-represented BCBS of Michigan workers have been on strike for more than a month. They include those who work in call center jobs and claims processing. They are protesting the outsourcing of jobs such as call center employees, unfair labor practices and wage disparity, the UAW has said. The union also has demanded that Blue Cross abolish a multi-tiered pay system that requires junior employees to work for 22 years before reaching the same pay as more senior colleagues.
Workers at the rally pointed to the tier system as one of the major issues they’d like to see resolved in contract negotiations.
Steve Volgyi, an electrician at Blue Cross, said he’s worked there more than 25 years and wants to see improvements for his coworkers who were hired later and don’t have the same benefits and wages as he does.
“I would like cost of living allowance for myself as well,” he said. “But my main fight is for equality for all of us.”
“We just want to see respect. We worked a lot for the company and sacrificed a lot during the pandemic,” said Maurice Starr, a Blue Cross worker who is in the lower tier. Starr said he’s also concerned about getting better retirement benefits. But this strike is about more than just this contract, he said.
“Anyone who’s interested in this movement should understand it’s not limited to our specific company,” he said. “This is a fight for all Americans.”
“Blue Cross has put contingencies in place to enable our company to continue to provide services to providers, group customers and our millions of members around the nation,” BCBS of Michigan said in a statement Thursday. “Some of those services — particularly those provided over the phone — will require longer wait times. We encourage our members and customers to use our online and app-based services during this period, and we regret the inconvenience caused by this situation — which we desire to resolve quickly, consistent with the spirit of collective bargaining, with our partners at the UAW.”
The event also happened on the 35th day of the UAW’s unprecedented strike of all three Detroit automakers. Some 34,000 autoworkers are on strike.
Staff Writer Candice Williams contributed.