A massive US airline catering strike involving 8,000 workers at 30 airports across the mainland United States and Hawaii has been averted at the eleventh hour after last-ditch talks between unions and global airline catering company Gate Gourmet heralded a tentative agreement.
Although “several critical details” still need to be resolved, workers represented by Unite Here and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters say they will no longer go on strike from Tuesday, July 29 as had been planned.
The strike was set to have a massive effect on operations for a number of US and foreign carriers including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, as well as the likes of British Airways and Lufthansa.
Unite Here has claimed that some of its members earn just $13 per hour, and only a quarter of workers at Gate Gourmet in the United States are allowed to join the company’s healthcare plan.
Labor relations for airlines catering workers is managed under the Railway Labor Act and the right to strike must first be approved by the National Mediation Board.
On June 29, the NMB declared an impasse in negotiations and released the two sides into a mandatory 30-day cooling-off period. As a result, the earliest date from which Gate Gourmet catering workers could participate in ‘self help’ action like a strike was July 29.
In a short statement, Unite Here confirmed that a tentative agreement had been reached late on Friday night following last-ditch talks. The union warned, however, that “several critical details” remained to be ironed out before the tentative agreement could be finalized.
Jens Kuhlen, the president of Gate Gourmet’s parent company, Gate Group for North America, welcomed the news, saying in a statement:
“For several years, Gate Gourmet has been negotiating in good faith with our union in an effort to reach a labor agreement that recognizes our valued employees.”
“We are grateful to our employees for their hard work to support the business, our customers and airline passengers. We look forward to a renewed partnership and long-term stability under this agreement.”
Some of the airports that were set to be hit by the walkout included Los Angeles and San Francisco, New York JFK and Newark, Boston Logan, Miami, Atlanta, and Dallas Fort Worth.
Gate Gourmet started life as the catering division of the now-defunct Swiss flag carrier Swissair before a rapid expansion in the 1990s when the company started offering catering services to other airlines around the world.
When Swissair went bust, Gate Gourmet was bought by Texas Pacific Group before passing hands several times before ending up in the possession of Singapore’s state-owned investment fund in 2019.
Unions have been negotiating with Gate Gourmet since 2017 and federal mediators got involved in the process just over a year later. It would be another six years before the NMB released the two sides into a 30-day cooling-off period, which is legally required before unions in the aviation industry can go on strike.
Unite Here had feared that President Biden would try to delay the strike by creating a Presidential Emergency Board but, in the end, those fears proved unfounded.
