With the FIFA World Cup quickly approaching, workers at one of Center City Philadelphia’s largest hotels are preparing to possibly walk off the job at the start of the world’s largest sporting event.
“ We’ve been without a contract for two years and a raise since the pandemic,” Gerald Byers, a UNITE HERE Local 274 member and nine-year housekeeping employee at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown hotel, said in an interview.
“We haven’t had a contract. We’ve been negotiating back and forth with the billionaires and the owners, and it seems like the owners don’t want to give up on one dime, one cent,” Byers said.
Sheraton employees walked off the job for the first time in the hotel’s history last October and held a four-day strike fighting for an increase in wages and benefits and staffing and scheduling levels that align with other unionized hotels.
UNITE HERE Local 274 represents roughly 4,000 hotel, food service, and gaming workers in Philadelphia with close to 150 members working at the Center City Sheraton hotel as of October 2025. The union is fighting for a four-year deal that’s retroactive to the previous contract’s expiration.
As part of a May Day action on Friday, thousands of workers and union members from across the region marched through Center City and stopped at the Sheraton to support workers who were picketing the hotel.
“These workers have sent a powerful message that they are willing to stand up and fight for themselves and their families,” Rosslyn Wuchinich, President of UNITE HERE Local 274, said in a statement in October. “This is just the beginning. Center City hotel workers know what they are worth and they will not stop fighting until they get it.”
Starting in mid-June, Philadelphia will host six World Cup matches from June 14 through July 4, with more than 500,000 soccer fans expected to travel to the City of Brotherly Love for those matches.
On top of that, the city will be hosting America 250 events, celebrating the country’s founding 250 years ago, as well as the Major League Baseball All Star Game in July.
According to Philadelphia Soccer, the World Cup is supposed to generate $770 million in economic impact, $51 million in state tax revenue, and create 6,615 jobs in the region.
Sheraton workers want a piece of that pie.
”We have 765 rooms, and I heard they’re already paid for it,” Byers said.
He added, “We’re ready to strike. We’re ready to strike today if necessary. It would hurt the city’s image.”
