As preparations intensify for the FIFA World Cup 2026, the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) and its affiliates have completed the first joint inspection visits under the BWI–FIFA cooperation agreement signed in October 2025.

Over one week, international delegations visited World Cup-related operations across North America, namely in Mexico City, Vancouver and Los Angeles, bringing together trade union representatives and OSH experts from affiliates in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Panama, Guatemala, Italy and the United Kingdom.

The missions focused on labour rights, occupational safety and health, prevention systems, and worker engagement linked to tournament-related construction and temporary infrastructure works of mega-sporting events. Across all three countries, affiliates engaged directly with workers, contractors, venue representatives and FIFA officials, while exchanging organising and OSH experience across regions and sectors.

“These visits move the agreement from paper to implementation,” said Ambet Yuson, General Secretary of BWI. “The active engagement of trade unions on the ground is essential to ensuring that workers delivering the World Cup benefit from safe workplaces and respect for labour rights.”

The visits also highlighted two central challenges ahead of the tournament: consistency and legacy. With works taking place across different legal, operational and contracting environments, ensuring that labour standards and occupational safety expectations are applied consistently across all sites remains essential.

At the same time, the missions reinforced that the standards, prevention systems and safety culture promoted around FIFA operations should leave a lasting legacy beyond the tournament itself, both in host cities and in the way future FIFA World Cups and major sporting events approach labour rights and worker protection.

The inspection visits were conceived as part of a process of engagement and improvement of labour rights’ protections ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026. For BWI and its affiliates, the visits demonstrated the importance of trade union presence and international solidarity in helping strengthen labour standards on the ground in the lead-up to the tournament and beyond.