More than 100 Embassy Suites employees will vote whether to authorize a strike. About 750,000 visitors are expected in the city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup games.
SEATTLE — More than 100 hotel workers in Seattle are threatening to go on strike ahead of the FIFA World Cup, when roughly 750,000 visitors are expected to crowd the city for the games.
About 113 union workers at Embassy Suites, a busy hotel near Seattle’s Lumen Field, where six World Cup games will be played, informed management that they will vote whether to authorize a strike this Friday.
“This is when everyone is at the hotel. This is when it hurts the most to have a strike,” Hayden Eyerly, a front desk employee, told Seattle-area TV station KING 5.
The contract between the Embassy Suites employees, represented by Unite Here Local 8, and parent company Hilton expired May 31.
“We’re very serious,” Eyerly said. “We’re hoping it doesn’t actually lead to that point. We’re hoping to actually have a good faith conversation about the demands we’re trying to meet. But if we do, we’re all in it together and will support each other, no matter what.”
If union members vote to strike, it could begin at any time, including during World Cup matches, the union leadership said.
Contract negotiations began March 2. Hilton’s current offer is less than $1 per year in raises over five years, a union researcher told KING 5. By comparison, workers at a Seattle-area Hilton property who went on strike last year secured more than double that.
Workers are also seeking protections from ICE on the property — a demand that Hilton has rejected, union leaders said.
The majority of Local 8 members are immigrants.
“We all care about our coworkers, and that includes potentially having more safeguards with ICE and their activities in our area and their potential proximity to events during FIFA,” Eyerly said.
Workers are also seeking better wages, improved healthcare, and a return to pre-pandemic staffing levels.
“We’re all feeling overworked and understaffed,” Eyerly said. “We’re fighting for fair workloads and reasonable staffing levels.”
KING 5 reached out to Hilton and the local Embassy Suites hotel for comment.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup soccer matches will take place across 16 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Seattle’s Lumen Stadium will host the following six matches:
- Belgium vs. Egypt on Monday, June 15
- United States vs. Australia on Friday, June 19
- Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Qatar on Wednesday, June 24
- Egypt vs. Iran on Friday, June 26
- Winner of Group G match on July 1
- Winner of Match 81 vs. the winner of Match 82 on
