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

FAIR GAMES: A NEW DEAL FOR OUR FUTURE

Los Angeles will become the mega events capital of the world over the next several years.  During 2026 through 2028, our city will host—among other events—the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Such mega events and the massive investments required to make them happen should have a positive impact for the city’s residents, including the workers that make the games possible. But in recent decades, in country after country, global sporting events have failed to produce lasting benefits for host communities. 

BREAKING NEWS: ANTI WORKER CAMPAIGN TO OVERTURN THE OLYMPIC WAGE FAILS OUTRIGHT QUALIFICATION

The Los Angeles County Registrar announced it will conduct a full count of the signatures gathered by the CEO-backed campaign, after completing an initial sample count.

Their failure to qualify outright is due in large part to the unprecedented efforts of workers and community to educate voters and collected signature withdrawals. Thank you to everybody who worked so hard to get us to this point!

A record of more than 120,000 Angelenos submitted forms to revoke their signatures on the referendum petition when they learned the petition would actually upend the Olympic Wage.

We’ll keep you updated when the full results are available in September!

FOX 11: LA tourism workers to receive increase in minimum wage

PRESS RELEASE: Los Angeles City Council Votes for Historic Olympic Wage 

Ordinance will increase wage for LAX & hotel workers to $30/hour by 2028, increase access to quality healthcare

Los Angeles: After dozens of tourism workers fasted for three days outside City Hall, the Los Angeles City council voted to move forward the Olympic Wage for tourism workers that would bring the wage to $30 an hour by the time the Olympics come to Los Angeles in 2028 and ensure workers have access to quality health coverage. The fasting workers are members of SEIU-United Service Workers West and Unite HERE Local 11 who work at LAX and some of LA’s major hotels.

“As a single mother of three who commutes over two hours from Bakersfield to work at LAX’s airline catering company LSG Sky Chef’s, it makes me happy to see this finally move forward . With the $20 I make it’s not nearly enough to help me live in Los Angeles. I am proud that city leaders are taking concrete steps to help better the lives of thousands of working families like mine ahead of the Olympics and Paralympics.”said Lorena Mendez, member of UNITE HERE Local 11 and faster.

“I have been fighting for this update to the Living Wage Ordinance for over 600 days because workers like me who are predominantly Black, brown, and immigrants and make LAX run deserve better. We deserve to be paid a wage we can live on. We deserve access to quality healthcare, so I can treat the COPD I developed from working at and living near LAX. I deserve access to the care my son needs to treat his asthma. Today’s City Council vote is a step in the right direction, demonstrating that when workers fight, workers win,” said Jovan Houston, LAX customer service agent, SEIU-USWW executive board member, and faster.

Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, said “Hotel and airport workers, the backbone of our thriving tourism industry, have made history. Through their strikes, marches, and even fasting, they won the nation’s highest minimum wage and the first-ever Olympic and Paralympic Wage. This is a critical first step to ensure that mega-events like the Olympics improve the lives of working Angelenos by providing affordable housing and good jobs, rather than simply enriching tourism CEO’s.”

“LAX workers have been fighting for the dignified wages and healthcare benefits that reflect the value of the essential work they do daily to anchor the transportation and tourism industries and will provide as our city prepares to host mega events like the World Cup and Olympics,” said David Huerta, President of SEIU-USWW. “LAX workers — predominantly Black, brown, and immigrant — took on the airlines and corporate special interests and even when faced with years of setbacks, they never gave up. Now, the LA City Council, thanks largely to the leadership of Councilmembers Soto-Martinez and Price and Council President Dawson has taken the righteous step to move the modernization of the Living Wage Ordinance forward, demonstrating that when LA responds to the needs of its workers, it can be a beacon of hope and live up to its name as the City of Angels.”

“Today’s vote is continuing the noble legacy of uplifting working families as the city gets ready to host the World Cup and the Olympics,” said Jessica Durrim Director at LAANE.

The vote marks a significant move forward after tourism workers first presented this ordinance in April 2023. The policy now goes to the City Attorney to draft and come back to the full council for a final vote. Tourism workers in Long Beach, another Olympics and Paralympics host city,  are similarly advocating for an Olympic wage.