NEW YORK, June 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Ahead of World Cup games kicking off in the U.S. this week, hospitality workers union UNITE HERE is releasing artwork in public actions and online to welcome visitors and promote solidarity. The artwork, a collaboration with award-winning artist Lois Harada, celebrates core American values of freedom and belonging to counter recent attacks on immigrants and American civil rights.
Watch UNITE HERE’s She Promises Liberty video with a message from hospitality workers welcoming soccer fans and celebrating the diverse workforce that serves the traveling public.
UNITE HERE members come from the United States, Canada, and 140 countries worldwide. The hospitality industry depends on people feeling welcome when they visit the U.S., but these days, many people are living in fear of being wrongly imprisoned or deported by the U.S. government. Moreover, the rights of all Americans—whether they are citizens or newcomers—are under attack.
The newly-released art invokes The Statue of Liberty to serve as a public reminder: She Promises Liberty. As a part of our national heritage, she embodies the American promise:
- She is the ultimate symbol of hospitality, a beacon for millions of new Americans arriving to the U.S.
- She embraces people from all corners of the earth and the humblest among us.
- She is a symbol of freedom, conceived in 1865 at the end of the Civil War to celebrate the end of slavery in the U.S. This is why she is named The Statue of Liberty and stands upon broken shackles.
UNITE HERE selected artist Lois Harada to create She Promises Liberty based on her body of work telling her Japanese American family’s story of incarceration during World War II. Her work reminds us how our nation has not always lived up to its promise as a place of liberty and justice for all.
Since its founding, the U.S. has promoted the promise of freedom, democracy and the common good while also carrying a bitter legacy of exclusion and oppression. Freedom has been contested and won by brave people acting collectively, such as those who fought for the abolition of slavery, organized unions, rode on buses to the South to register voters, and expanded the definition of who can be a citizen with full rights under the law. Today, those hard-won freedoms are under attack, but UNITE HERE is taking action to fight back and promote American values that celebrate freedom and broad sense of belonging.
“For our country to live up to its promise, we must not let the powers that be convince us that freedom comes at the cost of fear,” said UNITE HERE Secretary-Treasurer Nia Winston. “What makes our union so powerful is that it unites us across our differences. We stand together to demand change in a world that would see us hate each other. She Promises Liberty reminds us that together we can fight for a country that lives up to those values.”
“Hospitality workers make the World Cup possible by welcoming travelers from all over the world, living the values that the Statue of Liberty symbolizes,” said Enrique Fernández, UNITE HERE General Vice President for Immigration, Civil Rights, and Diversity. “While those in power try to divide us, members of UNITE HERE are standing together to remind the world of the American values we hold dear: freedom, possibility and belonging for all people, whether you were born here, are visiting, or have recently made this country your home.”
UNITE HERE is a union built by people who have faced and fought oppression. Founded by immigrants and African-American workers more than 130 years ago, the union has long understood that organizing must go beyond the workplace to create true opportunity and freedom for all working people. Notably, in 2003 UNITE HERE led the union movement in a call for immigration reform by mobilizing thousands the Immigrant Worker Freedom Rides, a national tour inspired by the 1961 Freedom Rides of the Civil Rights Movement. Learn more about our history and commitment to civil rights.
UNITE HERE is a labor union that represents 300,000 working people across Canada and the United States. UNITE HERE members work in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries.
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SOURCE UNITE HERE
