KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With under three weeks remaining before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off across the United States, Mexico and Canada, and six matches coming to Kansas City, IATSE Local 31 is still fighting to secure fair working conditions and staffing with FIFA, the local organizing committee and event sponsors.
The event begins on June 11 in Mexico City and concludes 39 days later in New Jersey and, locally, will feature matches at Arrowhead Stadium, the official Fan Fest at Liberty Memorial, KCHouse on the Plaza, as well as sponsor activations across the metro area.
While the tournament itself is organized by FIFA, local organizing committees handle much of the event in their own cities and sponsors operate independently, creating a diffuse and often murky landscape for labor to operate in.
When Joe Biden was president, FIFA committed to use organized labor throughout the event, but they have softened that commitment under Donald Trump’s administration and now the international soccer federation is only taking responsibility when they are bottom dollar.
That has yielded gains at Arrowhead Stadium, where FIFA have total control. After struggling to connect and negotiate with FIFA early on, the organization put in labor calls over the last week and secured deals that will benefit workers for all of the games at the venue.
A crucial step in that breakthrough was a late-developing transparency and understanding in how FIFA operates at the stadium. They have a clear chain of command who dealt directly with the union’s international representative to agree to a deal.
A lack of similar transparency has plagued labor at other sites.
IATSE Local 31 began working on securing contracts and labor for these events more than eight months ago, but KC2026, the local organizing committee, waited to put out requests for proposals and only awarded contracts in the last month. That put a time crunch on everyone involved and still didn’t create clear points of contact.
Those requests for proposals from KC2026 also had little in the way of requirements for workers. They did not ask for union labor to be used or any requirements for conditions other than wages.
With the contracts now awarded, KC2026 has avoided responsibility for the events despite being the organization in charge of them. They defer to the contractors who are executing the events.
In the case of the Fan Fest, which will host watch parties and concerts on 18 days this summer, IATSE Local 31 has had success negotiating with the contractor and were able to secure a fair contract for their members.
Things have not gone nearly as well at KCHouse, a hospitality and business-attraction venue, where KC2026 awarded the contract to a much less labor-friendly operator. That has caused serious issues trying to secure living wage and benefit payments for workers.
Sponsors have proven similarly difficult to work with as they stand up activations all over the city. And that assumes IATSE Local 31 can even identify who is in charge, as events have hidden contractors and sub-contractors through several layers of companies, making it difficult to know who to deal with.
National companies won some contracts and came into town intending to use non-union labor, but they do not have enough crews to satisfy demand. That has brought contractors back to IATSE Local 31, hoping to find the workers necessary to pull off the events, but that hasn’t been easy either.
Because KC2026 and contractors left things so late, IATSE Local 31 has to scramble to find enough workers. While they could have brought in labor from around the region, they did not have commitments early enough to take up a housing deal from the University of Missouri, Kansas City for $50 per night and now housing is an issue. Further, contractors are still not providing enough clarity on dates, times and necessary crew so IATSE Local 31 cannot recruit out-of-town workers with firm commitments for the work.
IATSE Local 31 is focused on not just securing work for their members and firm commitments, but also ensuring that there is enough in the package to cover healthcare and retirement funds. They are also committed to a transparency that guarantees equitable labor, which has not been the case with some national companies coming into town and looking to undercut the local workforce.
“When bringing these large events to Kansas City, the IATSE emphasizes that the cities and counties involved, include labor at the table for these stakeholder meetings rather than leave the temporary labor in a lurch of varied labor conditions,” IATSE Local 31 Business Agent Jacob Hobbs and IATSE 31 said.
Kansas City worked very hard over seven years to win the right to host World Cup matches, and the city agreed to let KC2026 take on the organizing role locally and has spent millions in public funds to put on these events.
The city has claimed that the public investment was worth it for the economic impact it would make, but if money from the event isn’t going to labor and instead to national companies who are undercutting workers, much of the financial windfall is going to leave Kansas City instead of staying in the metro. Requirements from the city that workers are paid livable wages for events put on with the help of their taxes would be a helpful remedy that was not taken for the World Cup.
Ryan Rosenblatt is a Kansas City-based sports journalist who has worked for dozens of major news organizations, including ESPN, Fox Sports, the Los Angeles Dodgers, SB Nation, Eurosport, as well as many other teams and leagues around the world covering a wide-variety of sports.
