LOS ANGELES — “It’s been two years without a contract. We’ve met with the company twice but they won’t give us what we deserve,” Gary Duplesses, a cook at Flying Food Group, organized by UNITE HERE Local 11 here, told the Militant. Duplesses was part of a lively picket line of 50 outside the company’s facility near Los Angeles International Airport Nov. 27.
The company supplies meals to international flights and Hawaiian Airlines, UNITE HERE lead organizer Ramon Lacayo III said. “Workers are fighting for higher wages and a pension so they can retire with dignity. Safety on the trucks when they deliver to the planes is also an issue.” The union organized an unfair labor practice strike in 2023.
Salud Garcia, 81, has worked for the company for 32 years. She said better health care coverage is a big issue, but sexual harassment by management is also something workers are protesting.
The workers carried signs saying, “No contract, no peace” in English and Spanish, and a big banner that read, “FFG workers stand against sexual harassment.”