Some concession workers at El Paso ballpark say they’ve not been paid
One of the food vendors at Southwest University Park tells ABC-7 he is not getting paid, so he can’t pay his employees.
Thirty-three employees are still waiting for their paycheck after working more than a dozen Chihuahuas games. One of them says he’s owed $600, so he’s now looking for other work.
“We were picked off the unemployment line,” said Northeast El Pasoan Ernesto Dominguez, who is now without a job again. “We were told you put in two weeks, wait two weeks, and we get paid. But that hasn’t happened.”
Dominguez works for a company hired by Ovations, which oversees concessions at Southwest University Park. His boss, Marshall Cowell. CEO of Team Sports Alliance, says his employees worked the Chihuahuas’s first 16 home games. But still no check!
“Since that time we have not received not one check from Ovations,” Cowell said. “I just want to take care of my employees.”
Cowell said Ovations owes him up to $20,000. ABC-7 tagged along as he met with the head of Ovations to figure it all out, but Ovations didn’t want ABC-7 in that meeting.
Afterward, Cowell said: “They still have not cut the check yet, but he said they will cut the check today and overnight it to my home.”
“The check is getting cut, Fed-exed overnight,” said Tyler Thomas, GM of Ovations.
What was the hold up?
“When we start out the homestand, we want to make sure we compensate everybody back correctly, so the first homestand usually takes an extra week, it takes a little bit longer,” Thomas said. “Generally, going forward, it’s the following week after a homestand.”
ABC-7 asked Thomas if he feels for Cowell’s employees.
“I do,” Thomas said. “Everyone understands where they’re coming from on that. We all have to live. We all need money to live, so absolutely.”
ABC-7 asked what team management thought about the concession worker situation, but they’re not talking. As for the vendor, Cowell says he will no longer work with ovations at the Ballpark. He added he never had a problem like this working for UTEP concessionaire Sodexo.
