right to – Just days before SoFi Stadium hosts its first World Cup match, Unite Here Local 11 reached a deal with Legends Global that narrowly avoids a strike. The contract delivers historic wage increases and other labor protections, and—most unusually—creates an unprec
On the eve of the World Cup’s arrival at SoFi Stadium, a tense gamble landed on a contract instead of a walkout.
Unite Here Local 11. the union representing about 2. 000 food and beverage workers at the Inglewood. California venue. announced a deal with stadium operator Legends Global on Tuesday. The timing mattered. Workers had voted to authorize a strike last week. with their anger focused on wages. what they described as jobs being worn down by automation and subcontracting. and the prospect that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers could participate in World Cup security.
The agreement came just days before SoFi Stadium is set to host its first World Cup match.
The deal includes what the union called historic wage increases. It also requires employer contributions to an affordable housing fund for hospitality workers. Beyond compensation, the contract places restrictions on subcontracting, automation and AI. And it adds a clause that union leaders say is rare to the point of being unprecedented: an unprecedented right to strike if the union determines that federal immigration agents threaten workers’ safety during the tournament.
Enshrining that right to strike over immigration-enforcement activity at the worksite is “unprecedented in modern American labor history,” the union said.
For workers, the clause is more than leverage—it’s a response to what they say they’ve already lived through in their city.
Unite Here Local 11 has argued that Inglewood has been terrorized by federal immigration enforcement since last summer. Union co-president Kurt Petersen told HuffPost that ICE had detained about a dozen Unite Here Local 11 workers. That history. and the prospect of federal officers operating at the stadium. is what pushed the dispute toward a strike authorization.
In the run-up to Tuesday’s deal, union members called on FIFA and stadium owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment to commit that federal immigration agents would have no presence at the tournament. They also warned they were prepared to strike if their demands were not met.
The union’s case gained an immediate limitation: Legends Global. the workers’ employer. 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.
The federal government has offered a different reassurance. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously told HuffPost 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 the workers’ ability to strike even with a collective bargaining agreement in place is now the fulcrum of the dispute. The union points to the right to walk off the job as a way to force DHS’s promise to be tested in practice—especially if workers believe federal agents start 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.”.
For now, the strike threat has been pulled back. But the agreement keeps one door open—if the union concludes federal immigration enforcement at the stadium turns from presence to peril for the people running food and drinks inside SoFi Stadium during the tournament.
Unite Here Local 11 SoFi Stadium Legends Global World Cup ICE immigration enforcement DHS contract negotiations strike authorization Inglewood automation subcontracting AI
So they made a deal so the strike didn’t happen? okay.
I don’t get how “right to strike” is supposed to help during a World Cup like… won’t that cause chaos anyway? Also the AI/subcontracting part sounds like they’re just stalling for more money. But if automation is taking jobs then yeah I guess.
Wait, ICE was gonna be at the stadium for security? That’s crazy. But if the union can strike over “immigration agents” then that means stadiums just turn into political battlegrounds every tournament. I feel like people heard “no strike” and forgot the whole point of the clause.
Historic wage increases… sure. But I heard somewhere they were already planning to use AI robots to replace the workers anyway, so this is like “restrictions” after the fact. And “affordable housing fund” like how much actually goes to people in Inglewood? plus if ICE is involved that feels like it’ll get handled by cops not by a union contract. anyway glad there’s no strike right before World Cup bc traffic will be a nightmare.