Oakland Coliseum and Arena's 1,605 workers to lose jobs at year-end

Company for the Oakland Coliseum and Arena has filed a state notice that all workers will be terminated at the end of the year. Now the company says that is when their contract actually ends. KTVU's Jana Katsuyama has been in touch with the company. The group seeking to buy the property and employees joins us now live with details. It's tough news for the employees there. Absolutely coming at the end of the year right around the Christmas holiday and with the The future of the Coliseum and the arena still not finalized. Workers who have spent decades working there are very hopeful that maybe in some way their close family of colleagues can continue into the future. The Oakland Coliseum and arena have been a central part of the city's history and identity and a beloved site for many Bay Area fans. That's where I met my beautiful wife is at the A's game in 2019 about two years after I started working How's it working there? Got engaged at the baseball game. Iran Smith works at the Coliseum and now is one of the employees losing his job. The management company, Legends Global, has managed the venue since 2012, but with negotiations continuing over the property's future, Legends Global has submitted a WARN notice now to the state. In a statement to KTVU, the company said, quote, Because our current contract ends December 31st, 2026, we must provide 60 days notice to our more than 1,600 full and part-time employees. We thank them for their incredible dedication to delivering exceptional experiences for fans, entertainers, athletes, and partners over nearly 15 years. The action impacts a wide range of workers who kept operations running for fans. The history includes championship teams such as the Warriors, winning big at the arena, to the Oakland Raiders, to the Oakland A's, bringing faithful fans to the Coliseum. The Oakland Roots soccer team called it their home pitch until leaving this year. I think it's memories. I think it's nostalgia. I think it's camaraderie. The property is co-owned by the City of Oakland and Alameda County. The Oakland Acquisition Company hopes to buy both sites for some $240 million and then sell the arena to the Oakview developer for about $100 million. We've been meeting with the union leadership. Thank you. That represents the members that work at both the Coliseum and the arena. And so we've been doing that for the last three weeks in anticipation for this situation. And so we'll be honoring the collective bargaining agreements. And people will naturally, just in a transition, you have to reapply. And we did get a statement, which I hope we can put up there, from the Unite Here Local 2. They said that Oakland law requires that workers keep their jobs and seniority even when ownership changes. We are negotiating to make sure workers can keep their union, their wages, and their benefits, too. But it's really difficult right now without an actual contract, the deal being finalized for some of these workers to make plans. When? Yeah. That's the big question. And I asked Raymond Bobbitt, you know, how things are going. He says they are, you know, really trying to put the, you know, pedal down to get the negotiations done, but he can't tell me when. So it's not clear if it'll be before this December 31st deadline. Got it. It's been kind of like this, this whole transition of stops and starts and tough to see how long it's going to take. Absolutely. For those employees. All right. Thanks, Jana. Thanks, Jana.