We, the Fair Games coalition, are more than 100 labor unions, faith leaders and congregations, and community groups in Los Angeles and surrounding cities that will host the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We share one vision: Games that bring lasting positive benefits for the communities and workers that will host them.

In December, our coalition will send a delegation to Lausanne, and we’re respectfully requesting the opportunity to present our vision to the IOC Executive Board meeting on December 13, and at the Olympic Summit on December 15.

The Olympic Charter promises “the spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.” Too often the Games have delivered the opposite: human rights abuses, corruption scandals, labor exploitation, militarization, and cost overruns that burden host cities for years. Athletes, workers and communities pay the price while sponsors, broadcasters and tourism companies reap enormous profits. Los Angeles cannot repeat this pattern.

Los Angeles already has one of the most expensive housing markets in the world. Working families live further and further away from their jobs. Meanwhile, Airbnb, an IOC Worldwide Olympic Partner, has spent millions to weaken local laws so it can siphon affordable housing away from residents onto its platform for tourists. If they succeed, we lose housing we cannot afford to lose.

Employers tied to the Games are also holding down wages as living costs rise. Delta Airlines, LA28’s inaugural founding sponsor, was among the largest funders of a concerted effort to overturn LA’s Olympic Wage, a program of higher wages and health benefits for tourism workers.

Most troubling, ICE and other federal forces are terrorizing communities with their violent and indiscriminate raids across Los Angeles and throughout Southern California. The Olympics’ security planning, led by the Department of Homeland Security, guarantees a greater federal presence in the region, threatening the safety of all of our communities and neighbors. Yet, LA28 and its Board, chair Casey Wasserman and CEO Reynold Hoover have remained silent. They have made no public call to protect residents, fans and athletes from these attacks on the communities that will host the Games.

Since 2022, we have raised these concerns with LA28. Our coalition has received no substantive response and seen no concrete action. So we are coming to Lausanne.

We are coming now, while there is still time for the IOC and all Olympic stakeholders to change course. Our delegation includes hotel, airport, event center workers, grocery clerks, teachers, immigrant rights activists, fair housing advocates, and interfaith clergy. We bring four demands for the 2028 LA Olympic and Paralympic Games:

• Union and living wage jobs that sustain families and communities

• Funding for 50,000 units of housing for working families

• An end to the IOC’s partnership with Airbnb

• Safe and dignified treatment of immigrant communities, including no ICE or immigration enforcement at the Games

Please join us in respectfully requesting to present at the December 13th IOC Executive Board meeting and the December 15th Olympic Summit. Members of our delegation will share their experiences and present our vision for each demand.

After four years of silence from LA28, we are bringing our concerns directly to the IOC. With the Games fast approaching, this may be the last chance to get it right. If their needs go unmet, working people are prepared to do whatever it takes to win a Fair Games.