Unite Here Local 11, which represents about 2,000 food and beverage workers at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, announced a deal with stadium operator Legends Global on Tuesday, narrowly averting a strike just days before the stadium is set to host its first World Cup match.
Workers voted to authorize a strike last week, citing wages, the erosion of jobs through automation and subcontracting, and plans for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to participate in World Cup security. The deal includes historic wage increases; employer contributions to an affordable housing fund for hospitality workers; restrictions on subcontracting, automation and AI — and an unprecedented right to strike if the union determines that federal immigration agents threaten workers’ safety during the tournament, Unite Here Local 11 said in a press release.
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Enshrining the right to strike over immigration enforcement activity at the worksite is “unprecedented in modern American labor history,” the union said. It represents a major victory for workers in a city that has been terrorized by federal immigration enforcement since last summer. ICE has detained about a dozen Unite Here Local 11 workers, union co-president Kurt Petersen previously told JS. After then-ICE Director Todd Lyons told Congress that the agency would play a “key part” in security at the World Cup, union members called on FIFA and stadium owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment to commit that federal immigration agents would have no presence at the tournament — and warned they were prepared to strike if their demands were not met.
Their employer, Legends Global, doesn’t have the ability to restrict ICE activity, and FIFA, whose president has closely aligned himself with President Donald Trump, has shown no interest in pressing the Trump administration to rein in immigration agents. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously told JS that federal agents’ “presence is focused on safeguarding the event and supporting public safety, not checking the immigration status of attendees at event venues.” Preserving their ability to strike, even with a collective bargaining agreement in place, is a powerful way for workers to hold DHS to that promise — and to protect themselves if federal agents begin conducting immigration sweeps.
“These workers are heroes. They stood up to FIFA. They stood up to ICE,” Petersen said in a statement on Tuesday. “They won a historic contract, and they are ready for whatever comes during the World Cup. If federal immigration agencies threaten workers’ safety, our members have the right to walk off the job. That is now in their contract.”