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.