A strike that had the potential to disrupt the U.S. World Cup opener at SoFi Stadium has been averted, with United Here Local 11 and Legends Global, the stadium’s food-service operator, agreeing Tuesday to a tentative deal.
The nearly 2,000 workers represented by the union, which includes dishwashers, concession workers, bartenders and servers, voted last week to authorize a strike with 96% of those voting supporting the decision to walk off the job. Workers were demanding salary increases, protection against subcontracting and job loss through automation, and were refusing to comply with FIFA’s request to collect sensitive private information such as nationality and home addresses.
FIFA, global soccer’s governing body and the organizer of the World Cup, said it needed the information as part of its background-check procedure but the union feared the sensitive data would be shared with immigration authorities. The union says it retains the right to strike over security concerns relating to the presence of immigration officials at the stadium.
“Workers have the contractual right to walk off the job if the union determines in good faith that federal immigration enforcement threatens worker safety during a World Cup match,” Local 11 posted on its social media accounts.
Details of the new contract were not released, but the union had demanded “substantial increases” in pay to more than $30 an hour while Legends proposed wage freezes for some workers and a 25-cent hourly increase for cooks and dishwashers.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Unite Here Local 11 and look forward to delivering an outstanding hospitality experience for fans at the FIFA World Cup matches,” Legends Global said in a statement.
Union members have been working without a contract for a year and Kurt Petersen, the union’s co-president, said workers would have picketed the stadium ahead of Friday’s tournament opener between the U.S. and Paraguay. SoFi Stadium will play host to seven other World Cup games, including the U.S. group-play final with Turkey on June 25.
FIFA has declined to comment on the contract talks, saying they are “between Legends Global and Unite Here Local 11.” But its insistence on collecting personal information was a major stumbling block to a deal.
FIFA said it was partnering with the governments of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, the three countries in which the 39-day tournament will be played, “to enhance safety and security of all workers, staff, team members, vendors, journalists, volunteers, and spectators by mitigating potential insider threats. … Such name checks do not constitute pre-employment checks.”
All data collected during the name-check process, FIFA said, will be processed “in accordance with applicable data protection and privacy laws, and will be deleted by FIFA as soon as it is no longer needed for purposes of adjudicating requests for credentialed access to FIFA-controlled spaces.
