UNION VICTORY: THELMA GOT HER JOB BACK!
Thelma Cortez from Flying Food Group reported alleged repeated unwanted sexual comments, advances, and inappropriate conduct by a supervisor. She was disciplined twice and placed on an indefinite suspension, losing substantial overtime income, and later was informed by the company intended to terminate her.
But she fought and with the support of her union got her job back!
Last week she and two other silence breakers filed a complaint calling on the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Contract Administration (BCA) and Human Rights Department to launch a full investigation into Flying Food Group, following allegations that the company retaliated against workers who reported sexual harassment and discrimination.
LAX Airport Workers Rally as LA City Council President Attempts to Lower Wages and Give Break to Airlines
In a shameful move, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson introduced legislation to take money from hard-working Angelenos and give the trillion-dollar airline industry a break
Airport workers at LAX who are members of SEIU-United Service Workers West and UNITE HERE Local 11 are sounding the alarm after Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson introduced a motion to substantially weaken the Olympic Wage Ordinance, which was passed by the City Council in May and survived a failed referendum effort paid for by airlines and hotel corporations.
Under the existing law, tourism workers are on track to reach $30 an hour by 2028, a long-overdue wage that reflects the high cost of living in Los Angeles and the essential work LAX workers do to keep our region’s economy running. Harris-Dawson’s new motion would delay those increases until 2030, effectively taking money out of workers’ pockets with the lowest paid full-time workers without health coverage losing nearly $35,000 as a result of the proposed shift and handing it back to billion-dollar airline corporations, while the airline industry is expected to surpass $1 trillion for the first time ever, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s financial projections. The motion also proposes creating major loopholes that would result in even further losses of healthcare and wages to airport workers and exclude hotel restaurant workers.
Workers call the move unprecedented, shameful, and a betrayal of the commitments the City made to the people who keep LAX running. Airport workers, many of whom struggled through the pandemic and continue to face compounding crises of rising rents, food prices, and transportation costs, are demanding that Council President Harris-Dawson immediately withdraw the motion, and that Mayor Karen Bass publicly affirm that she stands with airport workers, not corporate airlines.
ABC 15 ARIZONA: Union alleges Sky Chefs employee retaliated against for blowing whistle on unsafe conditions
“Unite Here Local 11 says LSG Sky Chefs employee Filiberto Lares was suspended over a “safety issue” and given a warning. The suspension comes just weeks after Lares complained to city leaders that the AC was not properly functioning in their airline-catering trucks and the same day the union organized a protest at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.”
PHOENIX HEAT & SAFETY ORDINANCE
Earlier this month, Sky Chef workers testified to Phoenix City Council that their employer didn’t have working air conditioning units in their trucks. Workers driving to the airport to deliver food for flights, sit in 100+ degree heat sometimes for hours. Check out the full story at the link in our bio.
PRESS RELEASE: Third Woman Alleges Sexual Harassment Against Flying Food Group at LAX, File Complaints Againts Airline Catering Giant
These Complaints are latest in litany of legal complaints against FFG; labor dispute drags on
Inglewood, CA: A third woman has filed a complaint against Flying Food Group, an airline catering giant LAX following two other women who did the same last month. All three are alleging that Flying Food Group failed to protect them from sexual harassment and gender discrimination on the job
In November of last year, two women employees of Flying Food Group, Nelly Hernandez and Sandra Ruiz, filed charges with the California Civil Rights Department alleging that they were subject to repeated sexual advances by their supervisor, including in the form of sexual comments, inappropriate staring, and multiple instances of unwanted physical touching at work.
Earlier this week, Patricia Hernandez Marquez, a former employee of Flying Food Group, joined Miss. Hernandez and Ruiz by filing her own charges, which allege that the same supervisor harassed her while she worked for Flying Food and drove her to quit.
The women are asking the Civil Rights Department to investigate Flying Foods Group’s practices, including whether the conduct they have alleged constitutes illegal discrimination under California law.
Nelly Hernandez stated, “My supervisor has caused me to feel unsafe at work. I’m afraid to clean the upstairs areas by myself in case he’ll find me there. I stopped wearing perfume to work after all his comments. I decided that I needed to do something. Others need to know what is happening and that they, too, can combat this kind of injustice in their workplaces.”
Sandra Ruiz said, “After all that my supervisor has done, I feel anxious just to see him at work. I get headaches and stomach aches and have lost weight in recent months. The stress I feel having to come into work every day is too much for me to handle some days. After I learned about my co-workers speaking out, I knew I wasn’t alone. I decided I had to come forward and demand respect, too, so that this stops happening.”
“This is not the first time Flying Food has been accused of failing to protect its employees,” said Susan Minato, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, the union that represents all complainants. “Time and again, workers have raised complaints about sex discrimination and other issues to the company. It’s time for Flying Food to own up to its responsibility to the workers and hold management accountable for this kind of behavior. No woman should have to work under the kind of harassment Nelly, Sandra, and Patricia have described.”
“Sexual harassment and discrimination isn’t just humiliating to workers,” said Jennifer Reisch, supervising attorney for the University of California at Irvine’s Workers Law and Organizing Clinic, which filed the charges on behalf of Flying Food employees. “It also can be a tool for employers to divide workers and undermine their efforts at organizing and building solidarity in the workplace.”
Workers at Flying Food Group have been embroiled in a labor dispute since April 2023, when they went on strike for 28 days. Since that time, labor negotiations have continued to drag on without an agreement. The company has also been at the center of numerous legal battles; last month, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board announced that it would be moving to trial on seven unfair labor practices charges filed against the company, while a dozen more unfair labor practice charges remain under investigation. Flying Food Group also paid out $1.2 million in damages earlier this year to employees for failing to recall them in a timely manner after the COVID-19 pandemic in accordance with the states’ Right to Recall law.
DAY FIVE OF THE FLYING FOOD GROUP ULP STRIKE
Meet Agustin Avila. Here’s why he’s striking against unfair labor practices & low wages. “The cost of living is going up but our wages aren’t.” Sí se puede baby!
MARIA FAVELA ON STRIKE!
Flying Food Group catering workers are on strike, serving up demands for justice, a fair contract, and a stop to unfair labor practices!
