{"id":854133,"date":"2026-09-20T08:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T08:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854133\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T08:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T08:12:12","slug":"fair-games-coalition-protests-lucas-museum-ahead-of-the-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854133\/","title":{"rendered":"Fair Games Coalition protests Lucas Museum ahead of the Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Days before the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/a> officially opens, protesters from the Fair Games Coalition \u2014 wearing Jedi robes and Jar Jar Binks masks and carrying lightsabers \u2014 rallied together outside the new museum.<\/p>\n

Dozens of people from the group fighting for better worker protections during major sporting events were loudly blowing horns, banging drums and chanting, \u201cS\u00ed se puede,\u201d directly across from Exposition Park\u2019s newest museum. The group was at the museum\u2019s private opening party Saturday night to take a stance against museum co-founder Mellody Hobson\u2018s recent resignation from the Los Angeles Olympics<\/a> organizing committee, LA28.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe launched the campaign with some real, reasonable demands,\u201d said Jessica Durrum, the director of the Fair Games Coalition, for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. \u201cIf the Olympics are coming to town, we want to make sure there are lasting benefits for our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fair Games Coalition,<\/a> which is made up of over 80 organizations, formed to fight for better labor deals during major events like the Super Bowl and the Olympic and Paralympic Games<\/a>. Some of the unions in the coalition include United Teachers Los Angeles, National Union of Healthcare Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, United Farm Workers and various community groups.<\/p>\n

Ahead of these events, the group is asking that employers provide union and living wage jobs, funding for 50,000 units of housing for working families, a moratorium on short-term rentals and protections for immigrant workers.<\/p>\n

\"Gladys <\/p>\n

Gladys Avyla marches in a Fair Games Coalition protest outside the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.<\/p>\n

(Jonathan Alcorn \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

Gladys Avyla, a member of Unite Here Local 11<\/a>, has worked as a cleaner at the W Hotel in Hollywood for the last 14 years. Several years ago she had to move to Victorville when her rent in L.A. got too high. Avyla said that with these major sporting events coming through town she\u2019s worried the cost of living will continue to rise as her work gets busier and busier. <\/p>\n

\u201cRent is very high, and everything is expensive. It\u2019s hard living here. We need a wage increase for the Olympics because everything costs so much,\u201d Avyla said in Spanish. \u201cWe need help for all workers. We\u2019re human beings, but, honestly, we aren\u2019t treated like human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hobson, who co-founded the billion-dollar museum<\/a> alongside her husband, George Lucas<\/a>, resigned from LA28 earlier this week. She reportedly stepped down from the position due to the demands of running the Lucas Museum. <\/p>\n

But the Fair Games Coalition claims she responded to their requests to meet and discuss their concerns by resigning. The 35-person board led by Casey Wasserman, who was recently under heat for his ties<\/a> to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, is meant to help plan and execute the upcoming Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how you hide your head in the sand. But we\u2019re not giving up. She still has clout and still has a lot of power in the city of Los Angeles with the Olympic Committee,\u201d said the Rev. Gary Bernard Williams from St. Mark United Methodist Church, a member of the coalition. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot of money flowing at the top. Very little money will be trickling down to the workers who need it the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Demonstrators <\/p>\n

Demonstrators at a Fair Games Coalition protest at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.<\/p>\n

(Jonathan Alcorn \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

LA28 and the Lucas Museum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

During this year\u2019s World Cup, where several games were hosted in L.A., Unite Here Local 11, the union which represents workers including dishwashers, concession workers, bartenders and servers and SoFi Stadium\u2019s food-service operator Legends Global, came to a tentative agreement<\/a> days before the first match. Pastor Bridie Roberts, who works as the community organizing director at Unite Here Local 11, said having the Fair Games Coalition\u2019s support was helpful during the negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members face serious, critical decisions every single day about how to make ends meet and they work with some of the biggest tourism companies in the world that will profit in the billions of these games,\u201d said Roberts. \u201cWe feel that the games have potential to bring real outcomes for working people, but only if we fight for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Days before the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art officially opens, protesters from the Fair Games Coalition \u2014 wearing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88,360712,360713,15757,45741,3729,4281,151332,359444,37460,1082,360714,15557,207534,23250,2394],"class_list":["post-854133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-fair-games-coalition","tag-gladys-avyla","tag-group","tag-la28","tag-local","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-lucas-museum","tag-major-sporting-event","tag-member","tag-olympics","tag-several-game","tag-union","tag-unite","tag-worker","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}