About 2,000 food and beverage workers at SoFi Stadium voted in protest on Friday to authorize a strike one week before the venue hosts its first World Cup game in the US in more than three decades.
Labor contract negotiations between Unite Here Local 11, the union representing cooks, dishwashers, concession workers and bartenders at SoFi and Legends Global, the stadium's catering company, are expected to continue Monday despite the vote. But Kurt Petersen, the union's president, said if an agreement is not reached the workers will walk off the job and the 70,000 fans who will attend the June 12 match between the US and Paraguay will be greeted by hundreds of pickers.
Union members have worked for a year without a contract and Petersen said Unite Here wants higher wages, protection from sub-contracting and job losses through automation, and is protesting the collection of sensitive private information such as nationality and home addresses that FIFA, the organizer of the World Cup, has said needs to give workers authority.
The workers also demanded the right to walk off the job if federal immigration enforcement entered the field and created reasonable fears for their safety. 96 percent of the votes were in favor of authorizing the strikes.
Legends Global, the food operator at the stadium, responded to the vote with a statement.
“Legends Global presented progressive wage proposals to Unite Here Local 11 during our negotiations and remains confident that an agreement can be reached,” it read. “While we expect the contract to be finalized on time, there is an emergency staffing plan to ensure smooth operations and no disruption to fans. We are committed to delivering excellent treatment at FIFA World Cup matches.”
That contingency plan will include hiring additional staff who will have to go through the detailed accreditation processes required by FIFA, as well as job training. SoFi Stadium is scheduled to host eight World Cup games, including two of the U.S. team's third games. The first of those is on June 12 when the US faces Paraguay in the World Cup opener.
Petersen said the union is looking for a “significant increase” in hourly wages, to more than $30 an hour. Legends' latest proposal calls for a wage freeze for certain workers and a 25% wage increase for cooks and dishwashers, the union said.
But perhaps a bigger point than sticking is FIFA's demand for employees' sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers and fingerprints, to process background checks. Under California privacy laws, employees have the right to know exactly what personal information their employer is collecting, how it will be used, and with whom it will be shared. Local 11 said its members fear such information, if collected, could be made available to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.
According to Petersen, when the workers were hired by Legends they submitted the necessary documents for employment, and under the current collective bargaining agreement the company has no right to appeal to FIFA again.
FIFA declined to comment on contract negotiations, saying they are “between Legends Global and Unite Here Local 11.” But its emphasis on collecting personal information is something the Legends can't deal with during contract negotiations, making the decision impossible.
FIFA said it is working with the governments of the United States, Canada and Mexico, the three countries where the 39-day tournament will be played, “to improve the safety and security of all employees, workers, team members, vendors, journalists, volunteers, and spectators by reducing potential threats. … Such name checks do not constitute pre-employment screening.”
All information collected during the name check, said FIFA, 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 the purposes of judging requests for guaranteed access to FIFA-controlled spaces.”
