Posts tagged Los Angeles
SoFi Stadium workers given ‘Kick ICE Out’ buttons by union ahead of USMNT-Paraguay
June 16, 2026 // Union shop stewards inside SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles are handing out buttons which read ‘Kick ICE Out’ for workers to wear at the venue hosting FIFA’s World Cup match between the United States and Paraguay on Friday night. The Unite Here Local Eleven union represent over 2,000 workers at the venue who largely work in food and beverage concessions, including cooks, dishwashers, servers and bartenders. The Athletic received images of both cooks and bartenders wearing the buttons. The union said the language of their agreement with the stadium operators, Legends Global, permits employees to wear “one (1) official Union button while on duty”.
California Policy Center: The unions that count California’s votes
June 15, 2026 // Union contracts also make the organized workforce harder to bypass or supplement. Los Angeles, like other counties, must give notice and bargain before contracting out work its represented employees have historically done, so a registrar facing a slow count cannot simply bring in outside help. This dependency deepened when California began mailing a ballot to every active registered voter during the COVID pandemic. A mailed ballot adds a labor-intensive chain not required for in-person ballots, including signature verification, envelope opening, extraction, and scanning, often performed by permanent unionized staff over weeks. The count has thus consolidated into a single central operation dependent on a unionized workforce.
LA hotels hit by largest job losses in a decade as ‘Olympic wage’ mandates bite, data shows
June 11, 2026 // "This is the largest year-over-year drop in the hotel industry in a decade (barring losses related to COVID)," the EPI noted in its report. "While countywide the minimum wage reached $17.81 an hour last year (higher than the state’s $16.50 hourly mandate), the City of Los Angeles also increased its hotel-specific minimum wage mandate up to $22.50 an hour."
SoFi Stadium workers’ union reaches deal to avoid strike during World Cup
June 10, 2026 // The contract will expire on April 30, 2028, aligning with over 100 other stadium, hotel, and airport concessions contracts that expire before the Olympics. Community groups in other World Cup host cities such as Atlanta and Miami also have called for a halt on U.S. immigration enforcement during the matches, fearing arrests near stadiums and watch parties could dampen the festivities.
CA Post Editorial Board: ‘Unite Here’ needs to unite, here, to make World Cup a success
June 8, 2026 // The union, which spent piles of cash on the recent primary elections, wants to exploit the World Cup to flex its political muscle. It’s top demand has nothing to do with its contract with the stadium, or with FIFA, but is rather just a complaint about immigration enforcement. The union wants employees to be able to walk off the job if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is operating at the venue. That’s an insane demand. Essentially, the union wants illegal immigrants to be able to work at SoFi — jobs Americans, want and deserve. The unions also wants its members to be able to skip work virtually at will, whenever they decide that ICE is some kind of threat.
Hollywood unions, workers push back against Paramount-Skydance deal
June 8, 2026 // The event, held at Lumiere Music Hall, marked the first stop of a three-city "Main Street vs. The Merger" campaign organized by advocacy groups, industry workers, and the Writers Guild of America.
SoFi Stadium workers set to vote on strike ahead of World Cup
June 1, 2026 // The union has made demands that include, according to The Athletic: –A guarantee that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will not be allowed on venue grounds during the World Cup, saying their presence could jeopardize employee safety. Government officials have said ICE agents would be on hand with security and not immigation enforcement their primary duty. –Restricted use of subcontractors. –No use of automation or artificial intelligence that could cause the loss of union jobs. –Release of information to the union that would detail things such as work hours or the distribution of tips and service charges.
New York City Unions Keep Winning Six-Figure Salaries
May 21, 2026 // Business owners say the wage increases will raise prices for consumers, with higher hotel bills and healthcare costs. In its negotiations, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority argued that the wage increases that Long Island Rail Road unions were asking for would lead to higher fares or increased borrowing. Labor economists and union supporters said union victories in New York City could be hard to replicate elsewhere, but across the country unions have been flexing a bit more muscle in recent years. And other workers, struggling to keep up with rising costs, could take notice.
N.Y.C. Hotel Housekeepers Will Earn Over $100,000 Under New Contract
May 19, 2026 // “They’re going to try to offset that by raising rates,” he said. But how successful they would be is unclear, given that New York City already has the highest average room rates of any big city in the United States, at about $335 a night, Mr. Pequeno said. In the past year, New York hotels have also had the nation’s highest occupancy rate, at about 84 percent, he said. The agreement between the hotel workers and the industry comes about six weeks before the expiration of the current 14-year contract. For more than a year, union officials had been preparing for a strike in early July, just before the celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States and the final of FIFA’s World Cup tournament at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Op-ed: Unions are acting as a toll booth on the road to unaccountable single-party power
May 8, 2026 // Unions do not write personal checks. They collect dues from membership — teachers, construction workers, public employees — then steer voluntary PAC contributions through ActBlue, the Democrats’ preferred fundraising apparatus. The tilt is so extreme it would embarrass a slot machine. The National Education Association’s PAC raised nearly $27 million in the 2024 election cycle, virtually every dollar aimed at electing Democrats. The four largest government unions — the NEA, the American Federation of Teachers, AFSCME, and the Service Employees International Union — spent more than $700 million on election-related activity in the 2021–22 cycle alone, with 96 percent flowing to Democratic candidates and organizations. That is not grassroots democracy — it is a toll booth on the road to single-party rule.