PRESS RELEASE (June 24, 2019) — Workers who prepare, pack, and deliver food and beverages served aboard flights for American, Delta, United, and other airlines have voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing a strike when released by the National Mediation Board. It was the largest such vote ever to occur in the US airline-catering industry, with more than 11,000 workers voting in 28 cities.
The workers, who comprise membership in the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and UNITE HERE unions, are employed by the two largest airline-catering subcontractors in the world: LSG Sky Chefs and Gate Gourmet. The three unions collectively represent more than 25,000 airline catering workers.
“For far too long, workers in the airline-catering industry have struggled to get by while American, Delta, and United airlines have earned billions. The vote to authorize a strike by hard-working people who are members of three different unions, including our own, shows our united strength and solidarity in this fight. Together, we are sending a clear message to the airline industry that our members need to earn a living wage in order to continue living and working in the major cities our airports serve,” said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).
“In the past two weeks, airline-catering workers voted overwhelmingly 'yes' to authorize a strike, a result that points both to the crisis of poverty wages and unaffordable health-care in the airline-catering industry, and to workers’ willingness to do whatever it takes within legal means to make a change,” said UNITE HERE International President D Taylor, “Catering workers refuse to sit back and watch airlines like American, Delta, and United earn billions in profits while workers barely scrape by. Now is the time for one job to be enough in the airline catering industry.”
“In 2018, American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines made a combined $7.4 billion in profit,” said International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James P Hoffa. “The world’s airlines can afford to pay vendors enough so that employees earn a fair return on their work. Airline CEOs are being paid $15 million a year while Gate Gourmet employees are paid as little as $8.46 per hour. We want airline passengers to understand that our members don’t want to have to strike, but they’re ready to do so.”
The strike authorization vote followed a breakdown in bargaining for a new contract. Sky Chefs and Gate Gourmet pay their employees poverty wages — most are paid less than $15 an hour, some after more than 40 years on the job. Many go without health insurance because they cannot afford the $500-monthly premiums to enroll in family health-care plans.
In their first public action post-vote, many workers joined informational picket lines at airports across the country during the week of June 17.
For a list of participating cities and vote information, visit AirportStrikeAlert.org.
The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) represents 100,000 members throughout the United States. The RWDSU is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). For more information, please visit our website at www.rwdsu.org, Facebook:/RWDSU.UFCW Twitter:@RWDSU.
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. This includes 80,000 workers in the airline industry, including pilots, mechanics, flight attendants, customer service and ramp agents, dispatchers, and caterers. Visit www.teamster.org for more information.
UNITE HERE is a union of over 300,000 members working in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries in the US and Canada. This includes over 20,000 workers in the airline catering industry who are employees of Flying Food Group, Gate Gourmet, LSG Sky Chefs, and United Airlines. Learn more at www.unitehere.org.
