Group asks for living wages, labor rights for 2026 World Cup

With this year's World Cup in Qatar clouded by labor and human rights issues, there's a push for the North American cities awarded games for the 2026 tournament to commit to livable wages, equitable hiring and worker protection.

The Dignity 2026 coalition has brought together groups including the AFL-CIO, Human Rights Watch and the Independent Supporters Council to work with FIFA and the individual host cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The coalition has met several times in the past few months with soccer's international governing body to discuss its commitment to these issues. With last week's announcement of the 16 cities that will host games, the effort has become more targeted.

They say FIFA is listening, but has not pledged to require minimum standards.

“That means looking at fair living wages, targeted local hiring, strong health and safety protections and agreements that make sure workers have a voice on the job. So we have given them about nine points that we would like to see implemented across all of the host cities. Because one of the things we have found is the cities haven’t gotten guidance about what the expectations are,” said Cathy Feingold, director of the international department at the AFL-CIO. “And so we think the best way to handle this is to make sure there are very clear binding frameworks that unify all of the host cities.”

FIFA did not respond to a request for comment.

This year's World Cup starts in November. Critics say the first World Cup in the Middle East is problematic because of Qatar’s history of human and labor rights abuses. There have been widespread reports of abuse of the migrant workers who have built the estimated $200 billion in projects that include stadiums, transport and other infrastructure.

Qatari officials...