LA-area stadium workers to vote on strike a week before World Cup begins
www.theguardian.com
Workers say they deserve a greater share of the windfall and want protection from ICE and invasive data collection

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/47730831

“We know they’re going to make a lot of money during these events,” Yolanda Fierro, a suite runner and union member who voted to authorize the strike, told the Guardian. “So what we want is a thank-you – gratitude from the company, giving us a good, equitable contract for increasing our wages, so we can survive out here in California because it’s very expensive here in this state.”

…

Workers also want greater guarantees for their safety. Unite Here Local 11 has demanded that Fifa refuse to allow ICE officers into the stadium during the World Cup.

The ICE demand is aimed to guarantee the safety of both foreign-born union members and spectators, Fiero said.

“They pay their taxes – they just want to be treated fairly and respectfully,” Fiero said of her colleagues. “We also do not want our guests from around the world to feel in fear of coming to our stadium and feel like ICE is going to take them because they’re not from our country.”

Last month, the union and the American Civil Liberties Union of southern California asked the attorney general, Rob Bonta, to investigate Fifa’s data-collection practices, saying that Fifa was collecting workers’ sensitive personal details, requiring them to waive their California data-protection rights, and then handing that information over to the Department of Homeland Security.

“These workers are being put in an impossible bind, where they are being forced to choose between their livelihoods and handing over their most personal sensitive information,” the letter reads. “Workers in California should not be forced to make this choice.”

  • egregiousRac@piefed.socialEnglish
    3·
    11 days ago

    “We know they’re going to make a lot of money during these events”

    I am not connected with that stadium, but I am connected to some of the others involved in the tournament. We don’t know if we are going to make any money. FIFA claims the games are all going to have max attendance, which means we need to be stocked/prepped/staffed for that, but it’s likely a lie. They also have made a bunch of weird demands that increase costs.

    FIFA is structuring everything so that they make a ton of money no matter what. That’s all they care about.

    That said, this sounds like it has more to do with the security protocols than it does pay. There’s nothing the employer can do about it and I don’t think FIFA cares.