World Cup Workers in US Cities Prepare for Potential Strikes
As the World Cup countdown ticks toward 11 June, a very different kind of tension is building around some of the US host cities. Not on the pitch, but in the kitchens, at the hotel front desks and behind the bars that will be expected to keep the tournament humming.
From Los Angeles to Seattle to Philadelphia, thousands of hospitality and food service workers are preparing for a summer of packed stadiums and sold‑out hotels. They are also preparing for the possibility they may walk off the job.
LA workers threaten strike on eve of US opener
In Los Angeles, the flashpoint sits in the shadow of SoFi Stadium, where the US is scheduled to open its World Cup campaign against Paraguay on 12 June.
Roughly 2,000 cashiers, dishwashers, cooks, bartenders, concessions workers and food attendants represented by Unite Here Local 11 have voted overwhelmingly – 96% – to authorize a strike. They can stop work at any moment as they push for a new union contract that delivers significant wage increases and explicit protections from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We’re just trying to make things fair,” said Eva Miles, a bartender at SoFi since the venue opened in 2021. Her point is blunt: without the workers, the stadium is a shell. “Without us, they don’t have a stadium. Are they going to cook? Are they going to pour those drinks? Are they going to serve these people?”
Miles commutes two hours each way to work because she cannot afford to live near the stadium on her current pay. Some of her colleagues, she said, travel even farther. Workers are pushing for pay above $30 an hour.
“Let’s see them live on our wage, let’s see them raise a family,” she said. She loves the job, loves the buzz of meeting fans from everywhere, wants guests to “have a great experience.” She also knows how much money flows through the building and into the World Cup. “I know they’re spending a lot of money on this Fifa World Cup, so I don’t understand why we can’t get what we want and everybody be happy.”
The dispute is not just about pay. Unite Here, the ACLU of Southern California and LAANE have filed a formal complaint with the California Privacy Protection Agency and the state department of justice, challenging Fifa’s accreditation rules. Those rules require workers to divulge immigration information to be cleared to work World Cup events.
For a union whose membership spans nearly 200 countries and traces its roots back to the 1912 Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, that requirement cuts deep.
“They experience the effects of anti-immigrant policy and rhetoric every day, and they don’t need the added stress of tracking ICE agents at their workplaces,” said Enrique Fernández, general vice-president for immigration, civil rights and diversity at Unite Here.
SoFi Stadium declined to comment directly, pointing instead to Legends Global, the concessionaire that employs the workers. Legends struck a conciliatory tone.
“Legends 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,” a spokesperson said in an email. “We look forward to delivering an outstanding hospitality experience for fans at the Fifa World Cup matches at Los Angeles Stadium (SoFi Stadium).”
The message is clear: they want a deal, and they want the show to go on. Whether the workers feel the same way by 12 June is another matter.
Seattle hotel staff push back before six‑match slate
Up the West Coast, the mood is just as strained.
In Seattle, where Lumen Field will host six World Cup games, about 100 workers at the Embassy Suite Hilton have voted 94% in favor of a strike authorization. They are represented by Unite Here Local 8 and are fighting on similar fronts: higher pay, year‑round health insurance, staffing levels that match the workload, and protections from ICE.
Front desk employee Hayden Eyerly said the hotel’s offer of roughly $0.80 an hour in annual raises over the life of the contract simply doesn’t match reality. “No one here thinks that is reasonable, because of the rising cost of everything, gas prices in particular,” he said.
The financial squeeze is only part of it. Eyerly described a workplace that shrinks and swells with the tourist season, leaving some workers regularly losing health insurance when their hours drop in the offseason. Staffing, he said, has still not rebounded to pre‑pandemic levels, leaving “every department” running on a skeleton crew.
“Everyone is very tired,” he said. “We’re 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.”
Many of his coworkers are immigrants, Eyerly added, but have been advised by immigration attorneys not to speak publicly, out of fear their status could be targeted in retaliation.
The hotel insists it is prepared if the dispute spills over into a walkout. A Hilton spokesperson said the Embassy Suite Hilton has contingency plans in place should a strike occur and stressed that management “remain committed to negotiating in good faith to reach a fair and reasonable agreement that benefits both our valued Team Members and our hotel.”
Philadelphia braces for strike deadline
On the other side of the country, Philadelphia’s World Cup preparations come with a deadline stamped on them.
Workers at six hotels in the city, represented by Unite Here Local 274, are threatening strikes during the tournament after their union contracts expired without new deals. The union has set 12 June as a strike deadline if agreements are not reached.
At the Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District, server Maciah Magloughlin said workers want substantial wage increases, a cap of 15 rooms per day for housekeepers, protections from ICE for immigrant staff, and more affordable health coverage for dependents.
“The hotels have the money to give us what we deserve,” Magloughlin said, pointing to the projected $770m economic impact of the World Cup for the Philadelphia area. For him, the argument is as much about who shares in that windfall as it is about the headline number.
“What we’re 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’s not fair, especially when we’ve got such a big summer coming.”
The Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District, like its counterparts in Los Angeles and Seattle, has tried to strike a careful balance in public. In a statement, the hotel said it respects employees’ rights to take part in legally protected activity and is focused on reaching “a fair contract.” It also pledged to maintain standards for guests while negotiations continue.
The World Cup is sold as a celebration of the global game, a festival of color, money and soft power. In the US host cities, it is rapidly becoming something else as well: a test of who benefits when the world’s biggest tournament rolls into town, and how much leverage the workers who keep it running are willing to use to claim their share.
