December, 27 2021, 10:17am EDT
Coalition Led by AFL-CIO Demands FIFA Commit to Human and Labor Rights Standards Ahead of 2026 World Cup
Leading labor and human rights groups launch campaign with letter outlining demands for soccer federation as it selects U.S. cities to host 2026 games.
WASHINGTON
Today, the AFL-CIO launched a new campaign in partnership with other leading labor and human rights organizations to push FIFA to prioritize labor and human rights during the city selection process for the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The coalition of groups released an open letter to FIFA on Monday demanding the governing body commit to a series of minimum labor and human rights standards and agree to negotiate with national human rights stakeholders prior to December 31, which is the deadline FIFA has set for prospective host cities to finalize and publicize their human rights plans.
Given the lack of substantive progress on these issues in meetings with FIFA officials, the coalition has taken this public step to make its demands known and intends to continue to hold FIFA accountable for its failure to prioritize labor and human rights in the lead up to the 2026 World Cup.
"Despite FIFA's dismal track record on human and workers' rights, we have approached them and their bidding cities in good faith, calling on them to ensure worker health and safety protections, provide fair wages and give workers a voice," said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. "However, FIFA has made no clear commitments on how it will meet its obligation to protect workers and communities in the planning and execution of the 2026 World Cup."
While the 2026 World Cup is almost five years away, host city human rights commitments are being framed and finalized now. FIFA has required that the bid committees for each of the 17 prospective host cities submit a human rights plan, and while some have taken steps to engage labor and human rights stakeholders and integrate feedback, many others have neglected or outright refused to do so. This inconsistency and inadequate consideration of stakeholders is the result of FIFA's failure to set clear standards and expectations around labor and human rights. Moreover, although the human rights plans will presumably be a factor in FIFA's host city selection process, the governing body has refused to disclose how much they really matter.
The selection process has been opaque from the outside, with limited input and consultation from key stakeholders. As the AFL-CIO states in their letter, given where things stand, "[...] FIFA essentially stands to profit from low wages, unsafe working conditions, racial discrimination in hiring and promotion, gentrification, and other forms of skewed development."
"Soccer fans across the United States, Canada and Mexico are excited for the World Cup to come to North America in 2026, but in order for the tournament to be a success FIFA needs to demonstrate a greater commitment to human and workers' rights than is currently," said Independent Supporters Council President Bailey Brown. "As fans of the beautiful game, we recognize the checkered history of neglect, mistreatment and exploitation of the workers and local communities who help make the World Cup possible. That's why we are calling on FIFA to do the right thing and take immediate steps to ensure all stakeholders in the 2026 World Cup are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve."
Demands of FIFA have been consistent over the course of AFL-CIO's correspondence. The letter calls for FIFA to commit "to be bound by a detailed set of minimum standards," including:
- Fair living wages
- Strong workplace health and safety protections
- Targeted local hiring
- Limitations on temporary work
- Strong investigation and enforcement mechanisms
- Responsible contractor bid requirements
- Ongoing meaningful stakeholder engagement
- Requirements to reduce labor conflict
- Agreements to give workers a voice
Signers of the open letter represent a diverse coalition, including national and international labor and human rights groups, North American soccer fan associations, legal experts and immigrant and urban policy advocates. Please find the full list of signers below:
- Cathy Feingold, Director of International Affairs, AFL-CIO
- Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch
- Rachel Micah-Jones, Executive Director, Centro de los derechos del migrante
- Erica Smiley, Executive Director, National Jobs with Justice
- Lauren Jacobs, Executive Director, PowerSwitch Action
- Robert Stumberg (Professor of Law) and Jennifer Li (Staff Attorney), Harrison Institute for Public Law, Georgetown Law School
- Bailey Brown (President) and Andrew Picard (Vice President), Independent Supporters Council
- Jennifer Rosenbaum, Executive Director, Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum
Concerns about FIFA's approach to labor and human rights issues a the 2026 World Cup are in part based on the track record of human and labor rights abuses alleged at past World Cup events, including but not limited to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Given this history, it is incumbent upon FIFA to establish new standards that demonstrate its intention to correct course and put greater emphasis on human and labor rights at the 2026 World Cup.
"FIFA has been forced to engage with the global labor movement and major human rights groups in the wake of public outrage related to its operations around the world," said Tim Noonan, Director of Campaigns and Communication at the International Trade Union Confederation. "We required FIFA to confront and remedy child labor in the production of its soccer balls in India and Pakistan, and mass displacement of populations in the construction of World Cup facilities in Brazil. Most recently, FIFA had to negotiate and commit to protections for migrant workers facing dangerous and abusive conditions while constructing the stadiums for Qatar 2022."
For members of the new AFL-CIO led coalition, it is imperative that the 2026 World Cup not come at the expense of labor and human rights, and that local communities actually benefit from the tournament. Tuesday's open letter marks the first step in a campaign committed to ensuring the 2026 World Cup is the most human rights and worker-friendly tournament FIFA has ever organized.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) works tirelessly to improve the lives of working people. We are the democratic, voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women.
LATEST NEWS
Trump Pushes Supreme Court to Let Musk's Cronies Seize Social Security Data
"Why do Elon 'Social Security's a Ponzi scheme' Musk and his DOGE cronies need to stick their fingers in your personal data—your work history, income, benefits, and health records?" asked Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
May 03, 2025
President Donald Trump's administration requested in an emergency filing on Friday that the U.S. Supreme Court allow members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to access highly sensitive Social Security data, complaining that a lower court ruling is inflicting "ongoing, irreparable harm on urgent federal priorities."
The filing, authored by U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, asks the conservative-dominated Supreme Court to lift a preliminary injunction issued last monthby Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander, who has accused Musk's team of engaging in "a fishing expedition" at the Social Security Administration (SSA) "in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion."
The Trump administration's request escalates a monthslong fight over access to the sensitive records that began in February, when the then-acting head of SSA left her post after Musk's lieutenants began infiltrating the agency and attempting to seize data.
A court ruling issued a month later ordered DOGE to "disgorge or delete all unlawfully obtained, disclosed, or accessed data." Musk, the richest person in the world, has falsely described Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme" and peddled discredited claims of large-scale abuses in the program.
The Center for American Progress noted last month that "while President Trump and Elon Musk repeat the long-debunked claim that dead people are claiming Social Security benefits, DOGE staffers are reportedly searching for dead claimants."
"As a result, according to The Washington Post, more than 10 million new people have been marked as dead since early March, including many seniors who are very much alive," the think tank wrote in an analysis warning that DOGE's efforts at SSA pose a grave threat to Social Security recipients. "For example, the SSA erroneously declared 82-year-old Seattle resident Ned Johnson dead. Before Johnson was even aware of or could remedy the mistake, the agency cut off his retirement benefits, took thousands of dollars out of his bank account, and cut off his Medicare."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote in response to the administration's Supreme Court filing that "Trump and Musk need to get their hands off Americans' Social Security."
"Why do Elon 'Social Security's a Ponzi scheme' Musk and his DOGE cronies need to stick their fingers in your personal data—your work history, income, benefits, and health records?" Warren asked.
"Many Social Security field offices have lost half their staff, even as DOGE is forcing millions more people a year to visit those offices. What good are earned benefits that Americans can't access?"
As the Economic Policy Institute recently explained, Social Security personnel "protect a trove of personally identifiable information."
"Sensitive information stored in SSA databases includes not only Social Security numbers, but also detailed earnings, tax, banking, and medical records," the group observed. "Until DOGE entered SSA headquarters, this information was carefully protected, with limited access granted to specially trained employees only for specific purposes."
The Trump administration's aggressive push to access SSA data comes amid a broader assault on the agency and Social Security itself, despite the president's vow to protect the program.
Earlier Friday, the White House released a budget proposal that calls for leaving SSA funding flat, which advocates said is effectively a cut given rising costs.
"The truth is that Social Security is extremely understaffed, which is increasing backlogs and wait times," Nancy Altman, the president of Social Security Works, said in a statement. "This budget will make those backlogs and delays worse. It will make mistakes—including the Orwellian nightmare of being inadvertently declared dead when you are not—harder to fix."
"This budget's cuts to Social Security are right in line with Elon Musk's DOGE, which has pushed out over 7,000 SSA workers, including some of the most experienced and highly trained," Altman added. "Many Social Security field offices have lost half their staff, even as DOGE is forcing millions more people a year to visit those offices. What good are earned benefits that Americans can't access?"
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump's 'Phony Energy Emergency' Used by DOJ to Target State Climate Laws
"There is no energy emergency, and Trump's stated reasoning for it is as much a scam as every other pathetic con and hustle this president attempts," said one consumer campaigner.
May 02, 2025
Defenders of climate and the rule of law blasted the Trump administration on Friday for using what one consumer campaigner called a "phony" emergency to wage lawfare agaist states trying to hold Big Oil financially accountable for the planetary crisis.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed complaints against New York and Vermont over their climate superfund laws, which empower states to seek financial compensation from fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate mitigation. The burning of fossil fuels is the main driver of human-caused global heating.
Separately, the DOJ also sued Hawaii and Michigan "to prevent each state from suing fossil fuel companies in state court to seek damages for alleged climate change harms."
"The use of the United States Department of Justice to fight on behalf of the fossil fuel industry is deeply disturbing."
Hours later, Hawaii became the 10th state to sue Big Oil for lying about the climate damage caused by fossil fuels. The Aloha State's lawsuit targets ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, and other corporations for their "decadeslong campaign of deception to discredit the scientific consensus on climate change" and sow public doubt about the existence and main cause of the crisis.
"The federal lawsuit filed by the Justice Department attempts to block Hawaii from holding the fossil fuel industry responsible for deceptive conduct that caused climate change damage," Hawaii Attorney General Anne E. Lopez said. "The use of the United States Department of Justice to fight on behalf of the fossil fuel industry is deeply disturbing and is a direct attack on Hawaii's rights as a sovereign state."
The DOJ on Thursday cited President Donald Trump's April 8 executive order, " Protecting American Energy From State Overreach," which affirms the president's commitment "to unleashing American energy, especially through the removal of all illegitimate impediments to the identification, development, siting, production, investment in, or use of domestic energy resources—particularly oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, geothermal, biofuel, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources."
Trump also signed a day-one edict declaring a "national energy emergency" in service of his campaign pledge to "drill, baby, drill" for climate-heating fossil fuels. The "emergency" has been invoked to fast-track fossil fuel permits, including for extraction projects on public lands.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement Thursday, "When states seek to regulate energy beyond their constitutional or statutory authority, they harm the country's ability to produce energy and they aid our adversaries."
"The department's filings seek to protect Americans from unlawful state overreach that would threaten energy independence critical to the well-being and security of all Americans," Gustafson added.
Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy watchdog Public Citizen, on Friday accused the Trump administration of "using a phony energy emergency declaration to illegally attack state climate and clean energy laws."
"There is no energy emergency, and Trump's stated reasoning for it is as much a scam as every other pathetic con and hustle this president attempts," Weissman continued. "Fake constitutional claims based on a fake emergency cannot and will not displace sensible and long overdue state efforts to hold dirty energy corporations accountable."
"These corporations have imposed massive costs on society through their deceptive denial of the realities of climate change, and through rushing us toward climate catastrophe," he added. "It's good policy, common sense, and completely within state authority, for states to hold these corporations accountable."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump Social Security Cuts Will Result in New Burden for Millions
"When people can't get their benefits for any reason, that is a benefit cut," said one advocate.
May 02, 2025
A new analysis out Friday makes the case that cuts proposed by the Trump administration to Social Security operations nationwide will create a "significant new burden" for millions of people, particularly "those who live in rural areas or have transportation or mobility difficulties."
Those who collect Social Security benefits will no longer be able to update their direct deposit banking information solely by phone. Instead of verifying their identity via security questions over the phone, the agency will require those who rely on Social Security to use a multifactor authentication process that includes a one-time PIN code or to visit a social security office in person.
The left-leaning think tank behind the new analysis, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), warned Friday that even though Trump officials within the SSA have claimed that the policy shift is designed to reduce fraud, "the agency's own figures show that direct deposit fraud is a very small problem—less than one-hundredth of one percent of benefits are misdirected."
A document from the agency gives "estimated burden figures," which indicates that nearly 2 million beneficiaries will need to visit a field office as a result of the changed process.
An April analysis from CBPP estimated that some 6 million live more than a 45-mile trip away from the nearest Social Security field office.
"The new PIN code requirement will be impossible for many beneficiaries to meet," according to the analysis from CBPP released Friday. "Many seniors and people with disabilities lack internet service, computers or smartphones, or the technological savvy to navigate SSA's online services."
What's more, the analysis states, "the PIN requirement expects callers to complete a multi-step, multifactor authentication and generate a PIN code while on the phone with an agent. Or if they don't have an account, they must hang up, establish an online account, then call back—a not-insignificant inconvenience when most callers to SSA do not reach an agent on the first try, and the wait time for a call back from SSA averages 2.5 hours."
Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, told Common Dreams on Friday that the CBPP analysis helps show how "the Trump administration and its goons are waging a full scale war against Social Security. They are forcing millions of Americans into Social Security offices at the same time they are cutting a huge percentage of the workforce."
"They are forcing millions of Americans into Social Security offices at the same time they are cutting a huge percentage of the workforce," Lawson added. "The Trump-Musk regime has one goal: Wreak Social Security so they can rob it. When people can't get their benefits for any reason, that is a benefit cut."
Trump, with the help of his billionaire advisor Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, have endeavored to slash government spending and personnel. A tracker from The New York Times estimates that there has been a 5% staff reduction at SSA, but total planned reductions at the agency could ultimately cut staff by 17%.
Reporting from NPR from last week highlighted how workers at the SSA are struggling to keep up, with fewer staff working to serve over 70 million beneficiaries.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular