Pay laid off arena and stadium workers

NBA, NHL, and MLB owners

To help counter the spread of coronavirus, the NBA and NHL have suspended the current basketball and hockey seasons and the MLB has canceled the first two weeks of the upcoming baseball season.

The teams and their owners will rebound from the economic loss, but tens of thousands of frontline hospitality workers serving fans at sports arenas and stadiums face layoffs. There are 20,000 UNITE HERE members among those most deeply affected by an unexpected loss of their livelihoods and access to health insurance for their families.

In this time of uncertainty facing all working families, it’s time that ALL billionaire team owners follow the example of figures like Mark Cuban and Kevin Love. We call on the team owners in all three major leagues—NBA, NHL, and MLB—to continue to pay their food service contractors so that the contractors can extend health insurance coverage and pay lost time to stadium workers affected by suspension of league play.

To: NBA, NHL, and MLB owners
From: [Your Name]

Dear team owners:

In this time of uncertainty facing all working families, we call on you, the owners of major league sports teams, to support the concessions workers facing layoffs in the wake of game and season cancellations.

We’ve seen great examples set by Mark Cuban and even players like Kevin Love and Zion pledge financial resources for these workers, but we need every team owner to follow suit to meet the needs of the tens of thousands of affected families.

You have the power—and opportunity—to set the tone for all industries to do right by the workers who can’t afford to miss a single day’s pay.