The column by Paul Schmidt-Troschke marks an exclusive World Cup partnership with The Guadalajara Post and the Monterrey Daily Post in which Schmidt-Troschke and the ‘World Cup etc’ international reporting team will be contributing exclusive World Cup coverage for both websites. ‘World Cup etc’ can be found across all good podcast providers.
As Mexican teachers did not back down from the protests that started a couple of days ago in Mexico’s capital, other groups have now joined them, seeing a rare chance to put pressure on the federal government to make their demands heard.
Striking educators organised in the National Coordination of Education Workers union (CNTE) have brought mounting chaos and disruption to the heart of Mexico City just days before the world’s most prestigious sporting event ever is about to kick off. The unrest escalated wildly this week when furious protesters stormed the Public Education Secretariat, using streetlight poles as rams, shattering windows, and sparking minor fires. The teachers’ demands remain unchanged: better working conditions, higher pay and a structural reform of the pension system which was changed recently do the state-employee’s detriment. President Claudia Sheinbaum, totally aware of the global spotlight has called for an open dialogue, saying “the doors are open”, though her administration’s offer of a 9% wage hike has been swiftly rejected.
With highways blocked and an encampment choking off central roads near the Zocalo square, where a massive World Cup Fan Fest is currently under construction, the threat of further disruption is well-calculated leverage in the hands of the protesters entering any negotiations. But if tens of thousands of striking teachers are not enough, another cohort of Mexicans desperate for the government’s attention joined the masses. Families of the over 130,000 persons who disappeared, mostly related to cartel violence, are demanding answers from the government as well. By now, it seems that the protests will only grow, with more and more individuals organized around any common goal discovering their chance to capitalise on this opportunity.
And lastly, in the face of historically expensive ticket prices and billions of taxpayer money invested in tourism infrastructure, the event itself is already angering so many as one protester pointed out “this isn’t an event for the Mexican people. Tons of people are going to come, but they’re going to be people with all this disposable income. It’s for the elites. The few average people who do go will have to scrape together all the money they have to live off of.”
Meanwhile, across the northern border in the United States, more workers seem to understand that the looming start of the World Cup can be transformed into a valuable bargaining chip.
And now another, and admittedly much smaller labour crisis compared to Mexico threatens a smooth start of the FIFA World Cup, with 2000 hospitality workers at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles having voted with a 96% consensus to authorize a strike, presenting a severe logistical and financial headache for tournament organizers. Represented by UNITE HERE Local 11, cashiers, concession workers, bartenders, and cooks among others are demanding higher pay in the form of a $30USD hourly wage, improved job security, and rigorous protection against unchecked subcontracting.
But as is the case so often, there is much more depth to it. Amidst the aggressive immigration crackdown by the Trump administration through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), stadium workers are urgently demanding that FIFA formally ban ICE and Border Patrol agents from operating within the venue. Many union members fear that stringent background checks and sweeping data collection could expose vulnerable foreign-born employees, as well as attending fans, to targeted federal scrutiny. Yolanda Fierro, a union member, said in a statement that “fans from around the world will come expecting an unforgettable event, and we take pride in making that happen. But no worker should have to fear being separated from their family or worry about dangerous ICE activity while simply doing their job. We deserve to feel safe, respected, and protected at work.”
What makes the threat even more significant is the fact that the first game on US soil will be played at this exact stadium in Los Angeles on June 12th between the U.S. and Paraguay. It is hard to imagine that the stadium organizer, Global Legends, would not do anything to prevent a PR disaster, and the workers’ demands are definitely not impossible to meet. The same goes for the Mexican government, even though the demands the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is confronted with are much more profound.
By Paul Schmidt–Troschke for Mexico Daily Post
Paul Schmidt-Troschke is a German independent journalist, currently based in northern Mexico, specializing in international sports and their relationship to politics and society. He is the co-host of the “World Cup etc” and “World Sports etc” podcasts, available across all podcast platforms.
