Learn about the ongoing struggle of airline catering workers employed by Flying Food Group (FFG) at LAX for dignity and justice. This page details workers’ efforts to hold the company accountable through strikes, public testimony, legal complaints, protests, and community action while raising concerns about workplace safety, labor rights, wage violations, retaliation, and sexual harassment. The page includes news articles, as well as information on actions by government agencies, reports by experts, and news on growing international solidarity from labor organizations representing airline workers around the world. Together, these stories provide a detailed record of workers’ demands for dignity, respect, safe working conditions, and accountability from one of the nation’s largest airline catering companies.
UNION VICTORY: THELMA GOT HER JOB BACK!
DOÑA SALUD GOT HER SHIFT BACK!
Doña Salud, who is 83, is returning to her morning shift!
Last year Flying Food Group gave Doña Salud a shift that ended at midnight, and as someone who is 83 and has to take multiple buses to get to and from work every day, it was tremendously exhausting.
After her dish department got together and organized a successful shift bid on her behalf, justice was served!
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.
FOX 11: Airline catering workers stage protest near LAX
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.”
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
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:
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:
PRESS RELEASE: Third Woman Alleges Sexual Harassment Against Flying Food Group at LAX, File Complaints Againts Airline Catering Giant
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.
LA TIMES: She’s 80, washing dishes, and fighting for a better deal for younger workers
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.
“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.”
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.
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
LAX catering workers vote to authorize a strike for higher pay
Airline Catering Workers at Flying Food Group Vote to Authorize Strike, 99% YES
The vote comes amidst a labor renaissance as teachers and other service workers across the region fight for better jobs.
Workers are also striking due to allegations that FFG locked multiple emergency exits to prevent workers from picketing and has not taken effective action to protect female employees from sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination.
“When multiple doors were bolted shut on the day of our picket, it felt like the company was treating us like animals and was trying to interfere with our union rights,” said Gary Duplessis, 62, a cook at the facility and a complainant to Cal/OSHA, “It was dehumanizing. We’re tired of being treated like this. If a strike is what we need to do to get FFG to respect our legal rights, we are ready. We are ready to do whatever it takes to get what we rightfully deserve.”
“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 ready to strike.”
Airline catering workers’ collective bargaining agreement with FFG expired in June 2022, and a six-month extension produced little progress during negotiations.
March 2023 Union Victories
LAX catering workers claim Inglewood plant exits blocked ahead of pickets