FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Just in Time for Christmas, HMS Host Workers in Three Cities Ratify New Contracts

December 24, 2021

Airport food workers with UNITE HERE Local 11 voted to ratify new contracts with HMS Host Thursday at Los Angeles International, Phoenix Sky Harbor International, and John Wayne Orange County airports.

All three two-year agreements lift workers at the bottom of the payscale to livable wages and establish stronger job security and anti-discrimination protections.

The ratification Thursday also averts a potential strike authorized this past Monday by American Airlines Admirals Club lounge workers employed by HMS Host at LAX.

“I love my job and what I do, but the money I’ve been making hasn’t been enough to live on,” said Evelyn Torres, an LAX lounge attendant. “I voted yes to go on strike if we had to, and I’m so proud that now we have a new agreement and we’re getting the raises we actually deserve.”

Workers in Phoenix won an agreement that dramatically improves health insurance cost-sharing for employees—a critical point for many who were on strike for 10 days during the peak of Thanksgiving travel last month.

“The health insurance alone will be life-changing for me and my family,” said Lucia Salinas, a cook at Cowboy Ciao at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. “After fighting for a contract for about four years, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief that we have what we need and deserve.”

“The pandemic, being unemployed, years of going without—it’s been hard. But we’ve kept fighting to get through it. Knowing what we’ve won shows that it was all worth it,” said Reyna Gonzalez, a cook for HMS Host at John Wayne Airport in Orange County.

HMS Host is the single largest concessionaire at LAX, Sky Harbor, and John Wayne airports—employing nearly 1300 workers at dozens of restaurants and all on-airport Starbucks stores. HMS Host workers also staff the American Airlines Admirals Club and American Eagle lounges at LAX.

Travel Alert: HMS Host workers vote 98% to strike

December 21, 2021

MEDIA ADVISORY: December 22, 2021
CONTACT: Maria Hernandez | [email protected] | 623-340-8047

LAX Travel Alert: HMS Host workers vote 98% to strike

Hundreds of airport food workers to stage day-long protest Wednesday

WHAT: All-day worker protest at LAX Terminal 4
WHO: Hundreds of airport concessions workers & members of UNITE HERE Local 11
WHERE: LAX Terminal 4, upper level (departures)
WHEN: Wednesday, December 22, 2021. Workers will picket constantly 9 AM–4 PM.
VISUALS: Uniformed concessions workers marching, chanting, and drumming at LAX Terminal 4 wearing festive holiday accessories, red t-shirts, and signs that say “Raise LAX.”
Follow the hashtag #LAXStrike and @UNITEHERE11 on Twitter

WHY: Ahead of the holiday travel rush, airport food workers with half a dozen airport concessions companies from every LAX terminal plan to demonstrate at Terminal 4 all day Wednesday to protest a labor dispute with airport concessions giant HMS Host.

On Monday, American Airlines Admirals Lounge workers employed by HMS Host voted 98% to authorize a strike and may announce a walkout any day.

HMS Host workers accuse the company of dragging out their labor dispute, resulting in many long-term workers going without a raise, except for those required by the airport minimum wage law, for more than three years.

HMS Host workers at LAX are members of UNITE HERE Local 11, whose members at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport were on strike for 10 days during the height of last month’s Thanksgiving travel.

HMS Host is the single largest concessionaire at LAX, employing nearly 700 workers at dozens of restaurants in most LAX terminals and all on-airport Starbucks stores. HMS Host workers also staff the American Airlines Admirals Club and American Eagle lounges in Terminal 4 and Terminal 5.

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UNITE HERE Local 11 is a labor union representing over 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona who work in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers, and airports.