Sergio Jimenez, co-founder of the Community Power Collective, an L.A. nonprofit that advocates for vendors, said many are “already in the red for not having worked a lot” since last June due to ICE raids. Now, he said, they’re being forced to weigh their livelihoods against safety.
“We shouldn’t have those choices, to gamble one’s lives just to ensure that there’s an access to an economic opportunity,” Jimenez said.
SoFi Stadium workers threaten to strike
The union representing workers inside SoFi Stadium has threatened to strike if several conditions aren’t met — including keeping ICE out of games.
UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents about 2,000 stadium workers, including cooks, servers and bartenders, held a rally outside the FIFA office in downtown Los Angeles on May 1. At the rally, plastic soccer balls rained down upon a part of the street as workers holding “Kick ICE out!” posters chanted “ICE has got to go! Ole, ole, ole!”
Isaac Martinez, a 38-year-old cook and shop steward who has worked at the stadium for 4 1/2 years, said workers are scared.
“Sometimes ICE goes off a person’s profile,” he said. “If I look Mexican, Latino … we are a city that’s full of Latin communities. We’ve seen what happened in Minneapolis, Chicago and here in Los Angeles. So there’s real fear.”
