A new mandate requiring airline service providers at Los Angeles International Airport to reach agreements with labor unions is being challenged as unconstitutional and a violation of federal law, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Airlines for America, a Washington, D.C.-based trade organization, and Airline Service Providers Association, a consortium of airlines, sued Los Angeles World Airports and the city of Los Angeles, claiming a recent labor agreement unnecessarily harms airlines and travelers by limiting competition, adding complexity and ultimately increasing the cost of air travel, said Vaughn Jennings, managing director of government and regulatory communications for Airlines for America.

The new labor agreement requires all service providers at the airport to reach what is called a “labor peace agreement” with every employee, including those who don’t want union representation.

“In other words, as a condition of doing business at LAX, (a service provider) must agree to negotiate and enter into a labor agreement with a labor organization that does not represent its employees, regardless of the wishes of those employees — and even, apparently, if the employees already have a collective bargaining representative,” the lawsuit states. “The labor organization thus effectively would become the bargaining representative of the employees with whom the (service provider) must deal.”

Jennings said the lawsuit impacts thousands of contractors with whom airlines routinely do business and who provide services such as baggage handling, ticketing, wheelchair assistance, security and aircraft fueling and cleaning.

“This provision not only inappropriately interferes with airlines’ ability to run their operations at LAX, but service providers that do not comply with the agreement can be banned from operating at the airport,” he said.

Officials with Airlines for America say LAWA’s Board of Airport Commissioners could be the first governing body to formally adopt a labor peace agreement. Jennings said he is not aware of any other airport that currently enforces labor peace agreements for service providers.

Even though LAWA manages LAX and LA/Ontario International Airport, officials said the agreement is specific to Los Angeles and would not impact ONT.

LAWA did not have a comment on the lawsuit because it had not been served.

The 20-page lawsuit claims LAWA’s new agreement undermines the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act, two federal statutes on labor issues such as collective bargaining and dispute resolutions.

“Ultimately, individual service providers and their employees should be the ones to choose whether to be represented by organized labor — it shouldn’t be forced upon them by the city,” said Len Sloper, the managing director of the Airline Service Providers Association, which represents both unionized and non-unionized businesses at LAX.

“We believe our members and their employees should have the right to make that decision,” he said in a statement.

Citing the Airline Deregulation Act, the lawsuit asserts the government — not LAWA — is the regulator for these airline services.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.