SoFi Stadium workers have “reached a tentative contract deal, averting a strike” ahead of the USMNT’s opening World Cup match Friday. The union announced the deal at a news conference Tuesday. The union representing 2,000 bartenders, servers, cooks and dishwashers at the stadium voted last week to authorize a strike after contract talks had stalled with the stadium’s food service provider, Legends Global (AP, 6/9).
The negotiations by the union have earned a 40% “increase in pay for attendants at concessions stands, as well as a clause in the agreement that permits workers to walk off the job if the union believes that the presence of federal agents, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, creates a ‘reasonable apprehension of harm to the safety and security of workers.’” Union co-President Kurt Petersen said that the deal will make SoFi’s concessions workers the “highest paid at NFL venues,” and most workers will “now make ‘more than $40 per hour, and many of them significantly more than that.’” He added that the deal includes “‘premium pay for mega-events, including all eight World Cup games,’ while they have also negotiated an ongoing contribution to the union’s housing fund.” The deal includes a commitment that “future accreditation processes for workers will not be as invasive as FIFA’s for the World Cup” (THE ATHLETIC, 6/9).
