LOS ANGELES -- As Los Angeles ramps up for the 2028 Olympics, local unions are drawing inspiration from the Paris Games when hotel workers went on strike a day before opening ceremonies.The French workers waved signs at the five-star hotel where members of the International Olympic Committee were staying, threatening “No Olympics!” if their demands were not met.A slew of labor union strikes surrounding those Games netted gains from higher salaries to better retirement benefits.Los Angeles labor leaders representing tens of thousands of workers across Southern California hope to employ similar strategies as the city prepares to host the Summer Games in 2028.Unite Here Local 11 co-President Kurt Petersen said his union has aligned more than 100 contracts that cover roughly 25,000 workers at hotels, airports, sports arenas and convention centers to expire in January 2028, mere months before the opening ceremony.
The idea is to maximize bargaining power.United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, which represents workers in the health care, grocery and packing industries; and Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents more than 100,000 county employees, also plan to leverage contracts that expire in the first half of 2028.“We are going to have a force ...
of working people to do whatever it takes, including striking if we have to during the Olympics in 2028,” Petersen said.“The Olympics can’t happen without the workers.”A coalition of labor groups, community organizations and religious institutions are pushing for the Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee — known as LA28 — and the city to pay for building 50,000 housing units, pass a moratorium on short-term rentals like Airbnb, and protect immigrant workers.Jules Boykoff, a professor at Pacific University who has studied worker gains from past Olympics, called the Games a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for organized labor.“These sports mega events are yet anot...