“Strike, strike, strike!” shouted dozens of unionized workers at SoFi Stadium on Monday, who in addition to asking for a better labor contract, are demanding that the owners of the stadium and the International Football Federation (FIFA) assure them that there will be no presence of federal immigration agents.

“The strike is planned if our demands are not met,” said Isaac Martínez, originally from Puebla, Mexico, one of the leaders at the negotiating table with the employers.

During a mobilization near SoFi Stadium prior to contract talks, Martínez and dozens of employees publicly showed their goal of declaring a work stoppage.

“We have been negotiating for two months and we have not gotten answers,” the young immigrant who has worked for five years at the property, where he is head chef, told La Opinión.

Contract negotiations with Legends Global include 2,000 UNITE HERE Local 11 workers, including bartenders, cooks and cashiers ready to strike.

The employment contract expired in August 2025, but the situation is complicated by the involvement of FIFA, which has requested confidential information from the workers, including social security numbers and the country where they were born.

Regarding this matter, they have directed a complaint to the California Attorney General, Rob Bonta, to investigate the alleged practices that violate privacy laws.

As a non-negotiable condition of obtaining employment accreditation, FIFA requires stadium workers – like journalists – to disclose sensitive personal data, such as Social Security number, residential address, nationality and country of birth, while waiving their data privacy rights in California, including limits on data transfer and the right to effective judicial protection.

According to FIFA's accreditation policy, personal data may be shared with “law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies, other departments of host cities and international partner agencies when deemed “necessary”, a definition whose application is at the sole discretion of FIFA.

According to its privacy notice, FIFA plans to store the personal information of American workers “in a database in Western Europe” and retain it “for as long as necessary.”

"No comment from Legends Global. Please feel free to contact me directly in the future," was the comment from Stacey Escudero, director of communications at Global Legends, to questions from La Opinión about the workers' demands.

“The terror persists”

Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, highlighted that the food and beverage workers at SoFi Stadium, who fight not only for a fair contract and living wages, are also “for a World Cup in which workers and fans can come together to watch the game safely and without fear.”

“We tell FIFA and Donald Trump that Los Angeles is a city of solidarity,” Petersen said. "Our creed is simple: an offense against one is an offense against all. That's why our city passed the strongest legal protections for immigrants in the nation."

The reference was to Los Angeles' Sanctuary City status.

SoFi Stadium, opened in 2020, will hold around 70,000 spectators per game and will be the venue where the United States will make its debut in Group D of the World Cup against Paraguay.

Petersen recalled that a year ago, when Trump sent the National Guard to Los Angeles, "we stood up, we protested and we marched; but above all we took care of each other. And that's why, when ICE kidnaps our members, we fight to bring them back home; every member of Local 11 who has been taken from the streets has returned to his family and to his job."

He denounced that “the terror persists” because a week ago, “Daniel”, a member of UNITE HERE, left a routine court appearance and fell into an ICE ambush. The agents detained him. His wife begged for his freedom, because they wanted to take her too. They placed an electronic bracelet on her ankle and let her go.

"Their children, ages 6 and 2, witnessed how their parents were terrorized by ICE. All this, for the simple fact of daring to live and work in the city they consider their home," emphasized Petersen, who criticized that FIFA has chosen Trump and ICE.

"FIFA has openly aligned itself with the forces that destroy families; those who really make the World Cup are the workers. FIFA organizes a soccer tournament, but it does not govern Los Angeles. No one elected Gianni Infantino or Donald Trump to govern Los Angeles. No one gave FIFA the power to decide who is safe and who is persecuted; and no one has the right to bring ICE to our city," he stressed.

Yolanda Fierro, in charge of the candy section at SoFi Stadium, said that all the staff who will serve thousands of people who come to the building have been clear that ICE must be kept out of the World Cup during the games that will be played there.

"We want them to have no role or presence during the games. Additionally, we are seriously concerned that FIFA would share our most sensitive personal information; not only would this constitute a violation of our rights under the laws of the state of California, but it would occur while we are working here during the World Cup," he explained.

Ms Fierro stressed that, apart from negotiations for a new employment contract, they will request that FIFA not share their data with any immigration agency, foreign countries or intelligence agencies.

"We cannot celebrate the World Cup while workers, tourists, our immigrant families and our local communities are made to feel unsafe in Los Angeles. We should be a city that welcomes everyone, not a city of fear," he said.

Multimillion-dollar profits

Present at the workers' protest was Tom Steyer, candidate for California governor, who offered his “moral” support to the SoFi Stadium workers.

The businessman criticized that since the Soccer World Cup is the most positive international event and California is the most progressive, most populated and most economically advanced state in the United States, "we should not have to see this moment as an occasion in which the rich get richer, in which workers are exploited and in which they have to worry about ICE agents lurking around the stadium."

Steyer predicted that this will happen if measures are not taken.

"We will see billionaires seeking to obtain extraordinary profits from this World Cup; FIFA, seeking to raise $13 billion thanks to this event, and workers who are driven out by the high prices of the neighborhoods where they live."

Steyer, a billionaire philanthropist, explained that in the electoral race he talks about shared prosperity: “And if I have ever seen the opposite of shared prosperity, the direction this issue is taking is the perfect example of that.”

For this reason, he called on FIFA and the Kroenke Sports and Entertainment company to publicly commit to two things: first, that ICE will not play any role in the 2026 World Cup matches; and second, that workers will enjoy fair wages and decent working conditions in what represents an opportunity for extraordinary profits for sport, for FIFA and for Los Angeles.

In California's tumultuous gubernatorial campaign, the race to succeed two-term Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom was thrown into disarray earlier this year after the collapse of former Bay Area Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell's campaign.

Following Swalwell's withdrawal, recent polls showed Republican Steve Hilton as the overall leader. However, a poll by Inside California Politics and Emerson College, published on May 14, reveals that Hilton has been surpassed by Democrat Xavier Becerra, who is now emerging as the new favorite.

Meanwhile, Steyer, who was very close to Becerra in several recent polls, has dropped to third place with 16.6% support according to that poll.