The Fair Games Coalition, which is comprised of more than 60 organizations, launch a campaign for a New Deal for our Future to ensure the games benefit working families. Over the next three years, Los Angeles will become the first city to host the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic & Paralympic Games back-to-back, making it the mega-events capital of the world. We are demanding that these mega-events serve our communities and leave a positive legacy. We are calling on LA28 and corporations to negotiate a New Deal for Our Future—or face the possibility of massive protests and strikes on the opening day of the 2028 Olympics.

 

FAIR GAMES: A NEW DEAL FOR OUR FUTURE

Los Angeles will become the mega events capital of the world over the next several years.  During 2026 through 2028, our city will host—among other events—the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Such mega events and the massive investments required to make them happen should have a positive impact for the city’s residents, including the workers that make the games possible.But in recent decades, in country after country, global sporting events have failed to produce lasting benefits for host communities. 

TORCHED: What LA’s tourism unions just did

“The ruthless greed of Delta, United, and Marriott was matched only by their arrogance,” said Kurt Petersen, Unite Here Local 11’s co-president. “We thank the people of Los Angeles for standing with us. Together, we will not only defend the Olympic wage — we will ensure that the Olympics and Paralympics lift up our city, not line the pockets of greedy CEOs.”

Tourism Workers Defeat CEOs’ Multi-Million Dollar Campaign to Overturn Olympic Wage

In a historic victory over some of the world’s largest corporations who spent over $3 million in a campaign that deceived Angelenos, workers mobilized and defeated the CEOs’ campaign to lower wages. After years of speaking up at City Council meetings, protesting at City Hall and LAX, and even fasting for three days before a Council vote, workers have yet again triumphed over corporate interests. Elected officials must do right by the workers who will make mega-events like the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics happen and stand strong against corporations who seek to undermine workers and Angelenos who have again supported raising wages.”

LAist: LA’s $30 minimum wage boost for tourism workers moves forward after an effort to overturn it fails

“A minimum wage boost for tourism workers in the city of Los Angeles is going into effect after the City Clerk announced Monday that a referendum to overturn it failed to gather enough valid signatures.”

LA TIMES: Bid to repeal L.A.’s $30 hotel minimum wage fails to qualify for the ballot

“The business group looking to repeal a $30 per hour minimum wage for Los Angeles hotel and airport workers failed to secure enough signatures to qualify the proposal for the ballot…”

BREAKING NEWS: In Historic Triumph, Tourism Workers Defeat CEOs’ Multi-Million Dollar Campaign to Overturn Olympic Wage, Law to Go into Effect

Los Angeles, CA: On Tuesday, over a hundred hotel room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, server, airline catering workers and airport workers plan to rally outside Los Angeles City Hall and celebrate the Olympic wage going into effect after the Los Angeles City Clerk announced the deceitful multi-million dollar referendum campaign funded by Delta, United and American Hotel and Lodging Association failed to qualify. Delta is a founding sponsor of the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics.

The Defend The Wage LA Coalition, comprised of UNITE HERE Local 11, SEIU-United Service Workers West (USWW), and Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), released the following statement:

“Tourism workers demand airlines and hotels Pay Up Now! In a historic victory over some of the world’s largest corporations who spent over $3 million in a campaign that deceived Angelenos, workers mobilized and defeated the CEOs’ campaign to lower wages. The Olympic Wage must be implemented immediately. After years of speaking up at City Council meetings, protesting at City Hall and LAX, and even fasting for three days before a Council vote, workers have yet again triumphed over corporate interests. Elected officials must do right by the workers who will make mega-events like the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics happen and stand strong against corporations who seek to undermine workers and Angelenos who have again supported raising wages.”

The announcement comes after a full signature count by the Los Angeles County Registrar found that the referendum campaign did not meet the qualifications to be placed on the ballot.

During the signature-gathering process, the campaign funded by airlines and hotels were accused of misleading voters by claiming the referendum petition would increase wages, when it would actually overturn a recently-enacted minimum wage increase.  Authorities were presented with extensive documentation of these and other deceptive practices.  In some cases, signature gatherers were themselves deceived by the initiative organizers into believing the petition was to raise the minimum wage.

Additionally, volunteers accused signature gatherers of violence against canvassers seeking to educate the public about the actual impact of the referendum and to keep the Olympic Wage intact.  The referendum signature gatherers even set up shop in Skid Row, allegedly paying cash to unhoused people to register to vote and sign the referendum petition. A record of more than 120,000 Angelenos submitted forms to revoke their signatures on the referendum petition when they learned the petition would actually upend the Olympic Wage.

On Friday September 5th  in Long Beach the Olympic wage for convention and airport workers went into effect, bringing their wages up to $25 immediately and to $29.50 by the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028.

Winning the Olympic wage was the first step towards building a more equitable Games that benefits working people. UNITE HERE Local 11, which leads the Fair Games coalition with LAANE and another 60 plus organizations, last month launched a vision calling on LA 28, IOC, corporate CEOs, and elected leaders for a New Deal for Our Future. The new deal would include union jobs and living wages, funding for 50,000 units of housing for working families, a ban on airbnb style short-term rentals to protect our homes, and safe and dignified treatment of immigrant communities.

A NEW DEAL FOR OUR FUTURE

Over the next three years, Los Angeles will become the first city to host the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic & Paralympic Games back-to-back, making it the mega-events capital of the world. We are demanding that these mega-events serve our communities and leave a positive legacy. We are calling on LA28 and corporations to negotiate a New Deal for Our Future—or face the possibility of massive protests and strikes on the opening day of the 2028 Olympics.

LAist: Powerful union demands ‘New Deal’ for the 2028 LA Olympic Games, threatens to strike

“A powerful hotel workers union and its allies are escalating their demands ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. They’re asking the International Olympic Committee and private Olympics organizer LA28 to give $5 billion to build housing in Los Angeles.”

LA TIMES: L.A. unions push for ‘New Deal’ ahead of 2028 Olympics

“With the city of Los Angeles set to become a mega sporting events capital of the world — scheduled to host the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl, the Olympic and Paralympic Games all in the next few years — labor groups pushed for what they are calling a “New Deal” to get the city and the LA28 Olympics organizing committee to make commitments to improve the lot of working people.”

TORCHED: The coalition that’s threatening to tank the games is growing

“Ever since Los Angeles was awarded the Olympics, the Coliseum has served as the backdrop for city leaders to share their 2028 plans. (Or, as I like to call them, what plans?) This morning, it was time to hear from the people. Squinting in the sun, a crowd of about 200 stood below the rings, waving posters with full-color photos of workers sharing what 2028 looked like to them — union jobs, more housing, an Airbnb ban, a guarantee of safety for immigrant communities as the federal government continued its reign of terror.”

KCAL NEWS: Los Angeles activists demand higher wages as the 2028 Summer Olympics approach

Members of various unions and advocacy groups rallied in support of a $30 per hour Olympic Wage on Thursday ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, calling their campaign a “New Deal for our Future.”

BREAKING NEWS: Fair Games Coalition Threatens Protests and Strikes During 2028 Olympic Games, Launches Campaign for New Deal for Our Future Outside LA Coliseum Olympic Torch

Los Angeles, CA: Hundreds of hospitality workers, teachers, grocery store workers, housing groups and other allies gathered at the gates of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the site of the opening ceremonies of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Fair Games Coalition will launch a campaign for a New Deal for our Future to ensure the games benefit working families. The Fair Games Coalition of more than 60 organizations including unions such as UNITE HERE Local 11, UTLA, NUHW, UFCW Local 770, United Farm Workers, and community groups including LAANE, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Immaculate Heart Community, KIWA, ACCE, and more demand that the New Deal for the Games include:

  • Union and living wage jobs to support families
  • Affordable housing, including funding for 50,000 new units of housing for working families and a moratorium on Airbnb-style tourist rentals that take housing off the market
  • Fair and dignified treatment of immigrant communities
  • Transparency and accountability

Today the coalition called on LA28 and corporations to invest in a New Deal for Our Future—or face the possibility of massive protests and strikes on the opening day of the 2028 Olympics.

Over the next three years, Los Angeles will become the first city to host the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic & Paralympic Games back-to-back, making it the mega-events capital of the world. Pasadena, Inglewood, Long Beach and other cities will also host matches and events. Advocates of the New Deal will demand that these mega-events serve our communities and leave a positive legacy.  Five of the last six Olympics ran over budget by 100%, leaving governments indebted  and residents displaced.

Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11 said, “The Games are not fleeting spectacles. They shape politics, the economy, and policing for decades. We believe the Games present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform our city. Teachers. Grocery clerks. Room attendants. Athletes. Cooks. Servers.  Engineers. Farmworkers. Renters. Faith communities – we make this city run!  And we are standing as one. We know how to fight.  And we know how to win. So hear us now. If LA28 and the corporations that will profit from the Games refuse to change course, we will take this fight to the streets – and to the Games. Because these Games will either lift up our city — or we will shut them down!”

The Fair Games coalition decried how the City of Los Angeles has decided to subcontract the Games to billionaires. LA28’s chairman, billionaire Casey Wasserman, recently met with Donald Trump who on August 5 signed an executive order declaring himself the chair of L.A. Olympics task force, raising concerns about continued federal interference and militarization in the region.

The campaign launch came amid growing concerns over the Games. Over the last several months, Delta Airlines – a founding sponsor of LA28 – joined the American Hotel and Lodging Association in funding a misleading referendum campaign to try to overturn the recently enacted $30 an hour Olympic Wage for tourism workers. The Olympic Wage law–which, remarkably, has been attacked by the Olympics own leading sponsor–now stands as the only major legacy effort for the Games. Among other shortcomings in plans for the Games, Wasserman abandoned promises to build an Olympic Village that would transition to affordable housing, as was done in Paris. Airbnb, another Olympics corporate sponsor, was recently revealed as the backer for a misleading “Save our Services” campaign in its attempts to convert thousands more units of rental housing into hotel rooms for tourists, exacerbating the city’s housing affordability crisis.

“The Olympics will create a massive surge in demand for the goods and services we, the workers, provide. While that means heavier workloads for us and greater profits for billionaires, we must ensure everyone wins,” said United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 770 rank-and-file Executive Board member and CVS employee. “We’re fighting to make every job a union job—from grocery clerks to merchandise vendors—jobs that are fair-paying, safe, and can sustain a family in this increasingly expensive city.”

Graciela Gomez, a housekeeper at Hotel June and member of UNITE HERE Local 11 said, “As a mother to a 44 year old adult son with schizophrenia, it is increasingly difficult for me to make ends meet and stay housed in Inglewood. I have seen how companies like Airbnb have tried to take over our city. As part of the Fair Games we demand a ban on airbnb and other short term rentals. Inglewood is not for sale!”

Pastor Bridie Roberts, Director of Community Organizing for UNITE HERE Local 11 said, “We call on the  International Olympic Committee and LA 28 to build at least 50,000 homes, invest $5 Billion dollars to build housing for city employees, teachers, cooks, room attendants who will still be here long after the games are gone. Corporations profiting from these mega-events to pay their fair share. If Delta and Marriott can pay their CEOs tens of millions of dollars a year — hundreds of times what an airport worker or room attendant earns — then they can help fund housing. A simple tax on companies that pay CEOs obscene sums while underpaying their workers could raise over $500 million a year for affordable housing.  San Francisco proved it can be done.  Now it is our turn.”

 

Victor Sanchez, Executive Director of LAANE, “Today, we launched a bold vision for the 2028 Games: Join us. Let’s fight for our future. Let’s fight for our democracy. Together, we can hold LA28 and the IOC accountable. Let’s beat back the extractive cash grab for billionaires and let’s win material benefits and protections for working Angelenos.”

Reverend Gary Williams Senior Pastor of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, located in District 8 in the City of Los Angeles and on the Board of Directors at CLUE., “The Olympics is an incredible global event that promotes the beauty of diversity, international solidarity, and beautiful stories of humanity through sports. Our workers’ vision for a just and inclusive future of Los Angeles reflects what the Olympics is all about.

Since 2021, UNITE HERE Local 11 and coalition partners have raised alarms about LA28’s secretive planning process, calling for transparency through public record requests and community action.