SoFi Stadium workers threaten to strike if ICE isn't banned from World Cup games
Isaac Martinez has been as a cook at SoFi Stadium for four years. He’s worked dozens of events including NFL games, a Super Bowl , Taylor Swift concerts , Wrestlemania and the college football national championship game.
And he’s never been afraid to come to work. Until now.
He’s not alone. With the World Cup kicking off at the Inglewood venue next month, Martinez says he and many of the people who work in food services and other jobs at the stadium won’t feel safe if federal immigration agents are present during the tournament.
“Most of the workers are afraid. They fear for their safety,” Martinez said in Spanish. “This is also about the fans. People come from everywhere, even from Iran. So we’re concerned about their safety.”
So concerned that Unite Here Local 11 , the hospitality union that represents Martinez and about 2,000 others who are working at SoFi without a contract, said it may strike ahead of the World Cup if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents aren’t kept away from the stadium.
Last month Unite Here Local 11 filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging Legends Hospitality, which operates the premium food, beverage and retail services at SoFi; Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, owner of the stadium; and FIFA, organizer of the World Cup, with creating an unsafe work environment by refusing to restrict the presence of ICE officials at the eight World Cup games to be played in Inglewood.
“We are concerned about the safety of guests and workers,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Local 11. “ICE has become more and more out of control and violent. We saw what happened in the killings in Minnesota. So I don’t think anyone is safe when ICE is around.”
A spokesperson for FIFA declined to comment about the union’s complaint, and Legends Hospitality did not immediately respond to repeated requests for comment. The union, meanwhile, joined Friday with faith and labor leaders and members of the Fair Games Coalition to press their point at a May Day rally outside the FIFA host committee offices in downtown Los Angeles.
Read more: If SoCal hotels, stadiums host ICE agents, employees can miss work, union says as World Cup nears
It’s unclear what role federal authorities will play at the World Cup, but Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, has said his agency will have a “key part” in security at tournament venues. And that ambiguous statement raised alarms not just with workers but also with human rights groups such as Amnesty International, which issued a World Cup travel advisory for visitors planning on attending the tournament.
Petersen said the union, along with more than 100 human rights groups, asked FIFA President Gianni Infantino to make a direct request to President Trump for a moratorium on ICE raids — especially at World Cup venues — during the 38-day tournament.
“FIFA could tell the Trump administration, ‘Keep ICE out of the games. We don’t need them to run a soccer tournament,’” Petersen said. “So that is the demand that we’re continuing to insist on. And if we don’t get that, then we’re prepared to do everything up to a strike heading into the World Cup.”
Amnesty International’s concerns are far broader than those of Petersen’s union. The group said it is worried about “the deteriorating human rights situation in the United States” and “the absence of meaningful action and concrete guarantees from FIFA, host cities or the U.S. government" to address that.
Read more: Amnesty International and rights groups issue a World Cup travel advisory for the U.S.
Amy Fischer, director for refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA, warned “there is a real risk for people traveling to these games because of the aggressive immigration enforcement tactics that we’ve seen from this administration.”
"There is a high likelihood of some chaos. Because that is what this administration thrives off of and it’s what they love to create,” she added. “At Amnesty, we are really hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.”
The travel advisory issued last week says visitors may be arbitrarily denied entry to the country, detained in "inhumane" conditions or subjected to invasive phone and social media searches. It also cites aggressive immigration surges in cities including Los Angeles that led to accusations of racial profiling and the violent suppression of protests.
Read more: Why is FIFA President Gianni Infantino working so hard to court President Trump?
“We know at the games there will be immigrant fans, there will be immigrant workers,” Fischer said. “Nobody is safe in that environment with this lawless agency that is consistently violating the law and violating people’s human rights. It could make any game turn into a disaster.”
Anxiety is high among stadium workers, who are concerned about the threat of ICE detainment, regardless of their immigration status.
“We are asking FIFA to take care of this and not allow ICE to be present in the stadium,” Martinez said. “We’ve seen the violence isn’t limited to one particular group. The violence is widespread. People have been killed in Minneapolis, in Chicago, even here in Los Angeles.
“We’ve seen everything that’s happened with ICE, and that’s where the fear comes from for all of us.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .
