Airline catering workers picket at LAX 12/17/25

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.

Large yellow banners lie in the center of the busy intersection at Century Boulevard and Avion Drive near LAX. The banners read, "City of LA: Why is Flying Food Group above the law?"

FOX 11: Airline catering workers stage protest near LAX

Hundreds of airline catering workers shut down a major entrance to LAX on Monday, blocking Century Boulevard and forcing some travelers to abandon vehicles and walk during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.

Workers allege unsafe working conditions, broken equipment, locked doors that create fire hazards, and unfair wages. According to union leaders representing the LAX airline catering workers, the demonstration is part of the push to “hold Flying Food Group accountable.”

A woman stands outside under a streetlight in the evening pointing to her sign that reads "City of LA: Why is Flying Food Group above the law?"

Thanksgiving Travel Alert: Hundreds of LAX Airline Catering Workers Call on City of L.A. to Hold Serial Lawbreaker Flying Food Accountable

Workers submit CalOSHA complaints alleging unsafe working conditions at Flying Food Group; company has previously been cited for safety and minimum wage violations

Demonstrators use a crosswalk in the evening to carry picket signs and flags across Century Boulevard near LAX

As tens of thousands of flights were scheduled out of LAX for the Thanksgiving holiday on Tuesday, the workers who prepare, package & deliver meals onto some of those flights called on the City of Los Angeles to hold Flying Food Group accountable for how it treats workers.

Flying Food Group operates with a city license to supply food for airlines like Air France, Lufthansa, Japan Airlines & Hawaiian Airlines. Los Angeles law requires that its licensees follow laws that protect workers & the public as a condition of maintaining a license.

Workers have repeatedly brought a number of problems to the attention of city authorities, but the mayor-appointed leaders of Los Angeles World Airports have failed to take meaningful action to enforce the City’s requirements for its licensees with respect to Flying Food Group.

Five different government agencies have issued citations or complaints against Flying Food Group over the last several years, including:

  • Cal/OSHA issued a citation against Flying Food Group for five worker safety violations, including a “serious violation” for bolting shut an emergency door from the outside.
  • The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Contract Administration has issued six citations against Flying Food Group and its subcontractors for violations of the minimum wage.
  • The California Labor Commissioner issued a citation for violations of the state’s Right-of-Recall law affecting more than a dozen workers.
  • The California Highway Patrol issued a citation against the company for five public safety violations.

A woman stands outside under a streetlight in the evening pointing to her sign that reads "City of LA: Why is Flying Food Group above the law?"

Multiple women have alleged they experienced sexual harassment on the job in pending complaints with California’s anti-discrimination agency, and most recently, Flying Food Group workers filed complaints with Cal/OSHA alleging they have seen a variety of health and safety problems, including the following:

  • Apparent fire alarm malfunctions related to an industrial dishwasher that sparked an electrical fire
  • Chemical burns due to insufficient protective gear and understaffing
  • Burst overhead pipes that doused workers and food products with water
  • Flooded workspaces that do not drain in heavily trafficked areas
  • Large transportation vehicles that operate on the airport tarmac with frequent maintenance and safety issues, such as a smashed tail light, a nonfunctional horn, a severely warped loading step, broken side view mirrors, and unusable seatbelts;
  • Hydraulic lift breakdowns on the tarmac
  • An overloaded warehouse with allegedly obstructed exits, fire extinguishers, and fire sprinklers.

Two women stand under a street light in the evening holding up photo enlargements from a safety complaint

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!

STRIKE ALERT: Airline Catering Workers at Flying Food Group Walk Out on Strike

Workers walk out after allegations of federal labor violations and 9 months of failed contract negotiations

Inglewood, Calif. — Employees of Flying Food Group Inc. (FFG), a company that provides in-flight meals for many prominent international airlines at Los Angeles International Airport, went out on an unfair labor practice strike today. Cooks, porters and drivers walked out at 3 a.m. and began marching in front of the catering facility. Workers plan to hold picket lines day and night.

Tomorrow, workers will be on the second day of their strike and plan to continue it until their concerns are addressed.

Workers are striking to protest alleged unfair labor practices that FFG has committed in response to the workers’ campaign for a fair contract with decent wages and benefits. Employees have filed eight pending charges, including allegations that the company surveilled union activities, suspended an employee for his union activities and locked multiple emergency exit doors on a day workers planned a picket line protest.

“When I started working for FFG, I was paid only $8 an hour,” said FFG employee Olga Tirado, who has been with the company for 13 years and works in its cold food team. “Now I get paid $18.04 an hour, but it’s still not enough for my family and me to afford to live a dignified life in Los Angeles. And because the company refuses to provide us with pensions, I also worry about our quality of life in retirement.”

“I also feel unsafe and surveilled at work,” she continued. “As we have alleged in our complaints to authorities, one morning in early February the company locked multiple exit doors, including bolting at least one shut from the outside with a metal plate, on the same day that we had organized a peaceful picket outside our workplace. We only wanted to exercise our labor rights but it felt like our employer was getting in the way of that. We are striking because FFG must respect our rights and pay us a fair wage.”

“Airline catering workers serve the international tourists who visit our city year-round, and they will serve the athletes and travelers who come here for the World Cup and the Olympics,” said Susan Minato, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, the union that represents FFG employees. “Our union is committed to making sure that ALL tourism workers make enough to live near where they work, can retire with dignity, and are treated with respect on the job. Flying Food Group is failing in all of these areas, and so these workers are on strike.”

On March 15, employees voted 99 percent in favor of authorizing a strike in protest of FFG’s alleged unfair labor practices and its contract offer. The move comes on the heels of similar actions by teachers and other service workers across the region fighting for better working conditions and against unfair labor practices.

FFG employs more than 350 workers at LAX who prepare and transport in-flight meals to the airplanes of more than a dozen major airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Air France and Lufthansa–and, beginning in April, the luxury Taiwanese airline Starlux. Last year, Flying Food Group earned $46 million in revenue.

Airline catering workers’ collective bargaining agreement with FFG expired last June, and a six-month extension produced little progress during negotiations.

Working Full Time and Functionally Broke