Philly hotel workers ready to strike during the World Cup

June 9, 2026

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Good afternoon everyone,

It’s Tuesday, June 9, and welcome back to another edition of the Keystone Labor Report. You can find last Thursday’s edition by clicking here.

I’d like to thank everyone and give a quick shoutout to those who attended our panel at Netroots Nation this past Saturday.

It was a great time, and I enjoyed the opportunity to sit in on some panels, keep up with the latest social media trends, and network with lots of fun people.

Sean Kitchen

Political Correspondent, The Keystone

(Sean Kitchen / The Keystone)

Hotel workers at six Philadelphia hotels are getting ready to walk off the job once the FIFA World Cup starts next week.

Philadelphia is hosting six World Cup matches between June 14 and July 4, and an estimated 500,000 visitors from across the world are expected to visit the City of Brotherly Love during the soccer tournament.

Rosslyn Wuchinich, president of UNITE HERE Local 274, which represents nearly 4,000 hotel, food service, and stadium workers in the Philadelphia area, predicts that it would be “chaos” if employees at some of the city’s largest hotels went on strike.

“These hotels are going to be completely full. I don’t know how they’re going to clean rooms. I don’t know how they’re going to clean bathrooms,” Wuchinich said in an interview. “ The last time we were on strike, they couldn’t even keep the bathrooms stocked with toilet paper. So I think it’s going to be pretty ugly inside if we have to go out on strike.”

Watch State Rep. Chris Rabb (D-Philadelphia) introduce himself to the Netroots Nation crowd and talk about being the descendants of both abolitionists and slave owners dating back to the country’s founding, per The Keystone.
US Steel pledged $2.5 billion in upgrades for the Mon Valley Works, per the Associated Press.
Will he or won’t he? Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (D) criticizes Democratic Mayor Cherelle Parker as he flirts with the idea of running for Philadelphia mayor come 2027, per the Philadelphia Inquirer.

(Sean Kitchen / The Keystone)

As I mentioned above, Netroots Nation was this past weekend, and Rabb used the annual progressive conference to take some victory laps following his primary victory in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District.

Rabb, who is running unopposed in November, will become Philadelphia’s newest member of Congress this January, and he took the time to talk to The Keystone for an interview this past weekend.

I talked to Rabb about what it was like being the underdog in that race, the coalitions he assembled, what he wants to do when he gets to Congress, and how his time as a blogger nearly 20 years ago helped him prepare for this moment.

READ Rabb’s interview here