Workers calling on American Airlines to set better standards of wages and health coverage for their contracted catering services

Hundreds of airline catering workers are planning to protest and hold demonstrations at 17 major US airports on Tuesday 26 November, during one of the busiest airport travel weeks throughout the year.

Workers are calling on American Airlines, which reported a profit of $1.9bn in 2018, to set better standards of wages and health insurance coverage for their contracted catering services.

In June 2019, more than 11,000 US airline catering workers in 28 cities represented by UNITE HERE, Teamsters and the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union voted to authorize a strike, the largest vote to occur in the airline catering industry.

The workers are employed by LSG Sky Chef and Gate Gourmet, subcontractors for American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines. A former subsidiary of American Airlines, Sky Chef was bought off and merged into LSG Sky Chef in 2001. According to Unite Here, more than 5,500 workers cater flights at American Airlines hub airports.

Workers say their wages are too low and they cannot afford health insurance.

For three years, Samantha de los Reyes, 25, has worked for LSG Sky Chef, a subcontractor for American Airlines at Miami international airport, prepping meals for first-class passengers. She makes just over $11 an hour and can’t afford the health insurance plan currently offered to employees.

Under Miami-Dade county’s minimum wage ordinance, most airport workers are required to receive pay between $14 to $16 an hour, but LSG Sky Chefs is currently exempt from the ordinance because they operate through a permit with the county rather than a contract.

“It’s an absurd situation to be in because we are having to choose between paying for our healthcare or paying to eat,” said De los Reyes. “We have gone step by step in negotiating with our company, asking for what we really deserve in wages and healthcare, and we haven’t gotten anywhere with that. That’s why we’re going to be protesting at the airlines.”

A report published by Unite Here in August 2019 found workers serving American Airlines airport hubs were making more than $2.50 an hour less than workers at United Airlines hubs, with several airport workers serving American Airlines making less than minimum wage standards set for other airport workers.

The report found dozens of long-term employees are still receiving the same hourly wages as new hires at several major US airports and only 27% of airline catering workers serving American Airlines at east coast airports receive any employer-based health insurance because of the cost.

“Right now I pay $134 a week to get health coverage for myself and my wife. That weekly charge adds up to almost $7,000 a year,” said Juan Blanco, who drives catering carts to and from airplanes at JFK international airport in New York City. “We are fighting for better wages and medical care from these airlines because they are the ones who are benefiting from the work we do.”

At San Francisco international airport, Melieli Cruz, who has worked three years loading catering carts for LSG Sky Chefs, had to delay surgery to remove cysts on her ovaries for a year while she saved up to meet her $2,000 deductible after paying $150 a month in premiums.

“In the meantime I was suffering pain, my cysts were growing, and it’s because our medical coverage is horrible,” said Cruz. She makes a little over $18 an hour, but explained in addition to the out-of-pocket costs for medical care and the high cost of living in the San Francisco area, it’s not enough to make ends meet. “I’ve been without a vehicle for a year because I couldn’t afford it.”

The airline catering workers have held several protests since voting to authorize to strike, including a recent die-in demonstration at Philadelphia international airport to demand better healthcare for workers and a civil disobedience demonstration in in Fort Worth, Texas, where 58 workers and protesters were arrested and fined.

The union is calling attention to American Airlines in protests because the airline dictates contracts with their subcontractors.

The protests will coincide with a holiday travel season projected to set a record for the number of passengers flying as the Transportation Security Agency estimates more than 26.8 million passengers will travel through security screening checkpoints between 22 November to 2 December 2019.

Protests are currently planned at airports in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco international airport, Seattle-Tacoma and Washington DC.

“American is one customer among many at the catering companies and doesn’t dictate wages or benefits to the catering companies,” said a spokesperson for American Airlines in an email to the Guardian. “We believe in the collective bargaining process, and so we are confident that LSG Sky Chefs and Unite Here will come to an agreement that increases pay and benefits for LSG’s employees and ensures LSG can continue to operate successfully.”

A spokesperson for LSG Sky Chefs said: “Our negotiating team and a federal mediator have been working since May 2019 to negotiate in good faith with the union representing our employees. Our company has offered improvements in wages and is discussing numerous other issues covered by our collective bargaining agreement.”