Be aware, as I just learned, that the workers at seven Boston hotels have been striking for a living wage for the past four weeks.
This includes several of the hotels close to the BCEC, including the Westin, the Aloft, and the Element
the Ritz Carlton, the Sheraton Boston, the W Hotel Boston, Aloft Boston Seaport District, the Element Boston Seaport District, the Westin Boston Waterfront and the Westin Copley Place
Connections Housing starts finalizing reservations on March 7. I made an additional reservation at a hotel whose workers arenāt striking, and will wait until March 6 to cancel to see if Mariott actually negotiates.
No way Iām walking through a picket line for PAX.
My current backup is Omni Parker House on the other side of the river. Gonna need a shuttle bus, but Iāll make do if I have to. Iām still hoping that Marriott negotiates, but Iām willing to eat the inconvenience.
Iām still sorting out how Iām going to balance time off where I get to do stuff I enjoy on my own vs. time off I spend with my kid who lives 500 miles away (FYI, if thereās a conflict, kid time wins). So Iām probably not going to this PAX East unless I can somehow get a badge relatively close to the date when I know what my schedule is more like.
That said, I live close enough that I commute to PAX East, so the hotel thing doesnāt bug me.
If it does come to it, Iāve stayed way out in the back bay before, worst-case scenario, and it was fine. And there are still a bunch of hotels closer than that, just on the other side of the river. 15 minutes on a shuttle that runs until after 1AM for one weekend is several orders of magnitude less disruptive than uprooting your entire life and emigrating if midterm elections go bad.
Iām not cancelling right away for two reasons: one is that Marriott has 4 months to reach an agreement with their workers before they actually take my money and I walk in the door, and two is that Connections still has the room block and would just resell it to meet the infinite demand immediately if I cancel.
But ultimately, I couldnāt justify walking through a line to save a bus trip, at least not to myself. Iām increasingly mad about labor. This is literally the least I could do and it costs next to nothing.
Edit: This probably gets resolved before 2019 anyway, but making for-real backup reservations and avoiding shit-talk and all that.
Hotel strike situation got resolved in November, for anyone who finds this thread later. As I recall, some non-pax event rescheduled to a non-striking hotel and the next day Marriott came to terms with the union
Have to say. The doubling down on the RPG live plays though does dampen my mood for the main stage. Nothing wrong with having them, but in the past we would get two solid days of concerts with bands spanning the genres, now we are going to get one with folk, Interactive art, and orchestra.
Thank goodness for the geekbeatradio team providing music in Jamspace.