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Concessions workers at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins, have been rallying for improved pay and working conditions for some time now. At the Twins’ home opener this year, back on April 3, members of union UNITE HERE Local 17 gathered outside Target Field to speak to fans about the low pay they received, which, per UNITE’s own wording, “it takes more than an hour of work just to afford a hamburger at the stadium.”
Longtime readers are aware of UNITE HERE’s constant agitation — that’s said complimentarily, to be clear, check out their tag page in the archives — and the situation at Target Field certainly qualifies for agitation. On Tuesday, 81 percent of the members of Local 17, which work at Target Field and are contracted with Delaware North Company, voted to authorize a strike if it’s deemed a necessary tactic for receiving an improved contract.
DNC responded to the authorization by stating that, “With only one bargaining session held to date, we are concerned that the recent strike authorization vote does not accurately reflect the current status of negotiations and may create confusion for our team members. We remain committed to bargaining in good faith and will continue negotiating with the union this month.” Of course, that it’s now May and there’s been just one bargaining session says as much about the state of bargaining and how far apart the two sides are as the strike authorization. The first step of bargaining in good faith is to actually show up to bargain.
Now, that’s on UNITE’s workers, as well, but getting the attention of the team contracted to DNC is a valuable bargaining tool, and this is merely an authorization, not an actual strike — Local 17 has just let DNC know what it’s prepared to do should it come down to it. This is a warning shot to let them know bargaining needs to be taken seriously, basically.
Elsewhere, UNITE HERE Local 11 has been making its anti-ICE stance known ahead of the World Cup descending on Los Angeles and SoFi Stadium in June. From The Guardian:
Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, outlined a slew of union demands in a letter addressed to Fifa president Gianni Infantino and Stan Kroenke, the billionaire sports mogul who built the stadium.
Petersen called for the leaders to abide by fair working practices, citing allegations of wage theft overseas during past iterations of the tournament.
Petersen also demanded Fifa issue a public statement saying ICE has no place in the city or at the games.
In February, New Jersey congresswoman Nellie Pou asked ICE’s acting director Todd Lyons at a House hearing if the agency would pause enforcement operations at this year’s tournament amid controversy after immigration officers on separate occasions shot and killed two American citizens in Minnesota.
“ICE, specifically homeland security investigations, is a key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup,” Lyons replied.
Since Local 11 brought this up, they’ve been joined by a number of advocacy groups similarly asking for human rights to be respected during the World Cup, as the Los Angeles Times detailed:
Petersen said the union, along with more than 100 human rights groups, has asked FIFA President Gianni Infantino to make a direct request to President Trump for a moratorium on ICE raids in U.S. — especially at World Cup venues — during the 38-day tournament.
“FIFA could tell the Trump administration ‘keep ICE out of the games. We don’t need them to run a soccer tournament,’” Petersen said. “So that is the demand that we’re continuing to insist on. And if we don’t get that, then we’re prepared to do everything up to a strike heading into the World Cup.”
Amnesty International’s concerns are far broader than those of Petersen’s union. The group said it is worried about “the deteriorating human rights situation in the United States” and “the absence of meaningful action and concrete guarantees from FIFA, host cities, or the U.S. government” to address that.
I say this with the utmost respect for UNITE, but, good luck getting the most corrupt organization out there, that invented a fake-ass peace prize just to cozy up to Donald Trump before the World Cup arrived in North America, to do anything at all about his fascist thugs he would deploy everywhere and anywhere if there were enough of them to pull it off. It has to be said, however, so good on Local 11 for saying it: ICE has no place at the World Cup, but the federal government sees this as a shooting fish in a barrel situation for rounding up immigrants and foreigners to hit their quotas. If ICE goes through with this strategy and shows up, then there might not be any workers at SoFi during the eight World Cup games played there during the international tournament.
Of course, that’s assuming that anyone actually attends any of these games and needs to have their tickets scanned and buy concessions. What a mess that is, unless you’ve got thousands of dollars you won’t miss. That’s not an exaggeration, either: “Tickets for USA vs Paraguay start at $1,120 and go as high as $4,105, with many tickets priced at about $2,000 for the June 12 match in Los Angeles. Seats in the hospitality package groupings go as high as $6,050 per seat.” This also doesn’t even get into the whole “America is bombing Iran and trying to intimidate them into backing out of the World Cup without actually banning them from participating” side of the discussion.
Happy World Cup or whatever, which is becoming America’s attempt at their very own 1936 Olympics. Or at least the trial run before the 2028 Olympics get a shot at the modern-day update.
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