\n<\/p>\n
Hospitality and food service workers in several US cities hosting World Cup games are warning of looming labor disputes and possible strikes as the largest single sport tournament in the world gets ready to kick off on 11 June.<\/p>\n
In Los Angeles, California, cashiers, dishwashers, cooks, bartenders, concessions workers and food attendants at the SoFi stadium reached a tentative agreement on Tuesday afternoon, but the union noted it had a contractual right to walk off the job if it determines that federal immigration enforcement is threatening worker safety during the World Cup. The US\u2019s opening match, against Paraguay, is scheduled to take place at SoFi Stadium \u2013 rebranded as the Los Angeles Stadium for the tournament \u2013 on 12 June.<\/p>\n
About 2,000 workers at SoFi Stadium represented by Unite Here Local 11 had voted 96% in favor of a strike authorization before the agreement was reached on Tuesday. Workers are seeking a new union contract with wage increases and protections from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to make things fair,\u201d said Eva Miles, a bartender at SoFi stadium since it opened in 2021. \u201cWithout us, they don\u2019t have a stadium. Are they going to cook? Are they going to pour those drinks? Are they going to serve these people?\u201d<\/p>\n
Miles said she and her co-workers cannot afford to live near the stadium on the wages they are currently paid. She commutes two hours to work every day and said some co-workers have even longer journeys.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see them live on our wage, let\u2019s see them raise a family,\u201d added Miles. Workers are pushing for pay above $30 an hour. \u201cI\u2019ve been there since the beginning. I love meeting new people. I want my guests to be happy, and I want them to enjoy it and have a great experience. I know they spend a lot of money, and I know they\u2019re spending a lot of money on this Fifa World Cup, so I don\u2019t understand why we can\u2019t get what we want and everybody be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The unions ACLU of Southern California and LAANE have also filed a formal complaint with California privacy protection agency and the California department of justice, over Fifa\u2019s accreditation policy that requires workers to divulge immigration information in order to work this summer\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
Enrique Fern\u00e1ndez, the general vice-president for immigration, civil rights and diversity at Unite Here, noted many members of the union are immigrants who will be working at hospitality venues across World Cup host cities.<\/p>\n
Members of the union include immigrants from nearly 200 countries; the union traces its foundation back to the 1912 Bread and Roses strike of textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, organized by immigrant founders of the union.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey experience the effects of anti-immigrant policy and rhetoric every day, and they don\u2019t need the added stress of tracking ICE agents at their workplaces,\u201d said Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n
SoFi Stadium declined to comment, deferring to Legends Global, the concessionaire that employs the workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cLegends Global has enjoyed a strong relationship with Unite Here Local 11 for more than a decade and remains committed to reaching a fair agreement through good faith negotiations,\u201d said a spokesperson in an email. \u201cWe look forward to delivering an outstanding hospitality experience for fans at the Fifa World Cup matches at Los Angeles Stadium (SoFi Stadium).\u201d<\/p>\n
In Seattle, hotel workers represented by Unite Here Local 8 at the Embassy Suites Hilton near Lumen Field, where six World Cup games will be held, voted 94% in favor of a strike authorization. About 100 workers at the hotel are fighting for pay increases, year-round health insurance coverage, ICE protections and improved staffing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need the wages to improve,\u201d said Hayden Eyerly, a front desk employee at the Embassy Suites Hilton. He noted the hotel had only offered raises of about $0.80 an hour annually over the course of the contract. \u201cNo one here thinks that is reasonable, because of the rising cost of everything, gas prices in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said some workers in the unit regularly lose health insurance during tourism offseason due to a loss of work hours and argued that staffing levels at the hotel had not recovered to their pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n
Eyerly noted many of his co-workers are immigrants, and had been advised by their immigration attorney to refrain from speaking to the media out of concern for retaliation toward their immigration status.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is very tired. Every department has been working on a skeleton crew,\u201d added Eyerly. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to make real changes, a real positive impact in our lives. We all deserve to work one job, we all deserve to come home and have the energy to be there for our families.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Hilton spokesperson said the hotel had contingency plans in place if a strike does occur.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain committed to negotiating in good faith to reach a fair and reasonable agreement that benefits both our valued Team Members and our hotel,\u201d they said in an email.<\/p>\n
In Philadelphia, workers at six hotels represented by Unite Here Local 274 are threatening possible strikes during the World Cup matches in the city as their union contracts have expired without another agreement in place. A strike deadline of 12 June has been set by the hotels if new deals aren\u2019t reached by then.<\/p>\n
Maciah Magloughlin, a server at the Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District, said workers are pushing for substantial wage increases, a workload cap of 15 rooms for housekeepers, protections from ICE for immigrant workers and more affordable health coverage for dependents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hotels have the money to give us what we deserve,\u201d said Magloughlin, who cited the projected $770m economic impact of the World Cup for the Philadelphia area. \u201cWhat we\u2019re fighting for is that the people who hold this industry up on their back also get a piece of that, because people are fighting to send their kids to school or take time off or buy groceries, and that\u2019s not fair, especially when we\u2019ve got such a big summer coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District said in a statement on the strike threat as negotiations for a new union contract are ongoing: \u201cWe respect our team members\u2019 rights to engage in legally protected activities and look forward to reaching a fair contract. While discussions are ongoing, we remain committed to ensuring our guests enjoy their stay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifa declined to comment, stating the contract dispute at SoFi Stadium does not involve Fifa. It did not comment on the other labor action threats or its ICE accreditation policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hospitality and food service workers in several US cities hosting World Cup games are warning of looming labor disputes and possible strikes as the largest single sport tournament in the world gets ready to kick off on 11 June. In Los Angeles, California, cashiers, dishwashers, cooks, bartenders, concessions workers and food attendants at the SoFi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[130,3328,5360,1599,85,773,1438,550],"class_list":{"0":"post-50195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-cup","9":"tag-fair","10":"tag-hotel","11":"tag-stadium","12":"tag-strikes","13":"tag-threaten","14":"tag-workers","15":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}