PHILADELPHIA — Over 250 LSG Sky Chefs workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 274, joined other UNITE HERE unionists in a spirited and loud protest rally at the airport here Dec. 20. It was part of a series of similar actions in Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle in a fight for a new contract, which began in 2018. The workers prepare, load and deliver in-flight food and beverages for major airlines like American.
Key issues include higher wages and better, more affordable health care. And Sky Chefs bosses are implementing a new catering “protocol,” cutting to just one person the long-standing two-person crews — a truck driver and spotter — that cater the planes. These new and dangerous cuts have already been implemented in Seattle, San Francisco and Minneapolis.
In Minneapolis one worker was pinned against a plane as he attempted to stop the delivery truck from rolling forward, crushing his arm and leg.
“Not having a spotter, this is very dangerous,” NeNe Diallo, a UNITE HERE Local 274 shop steward, said at the Philadelphia rally. “They haven’t tried that here yet.”
The protests also targeted American Airlines. Workers explained the airlines profit from their labor and need to take responsibility for their safety. “The accountability for workers’ safety does not lie with Sky Chefs alone,” UNITE HERE National President Gwen Mills said in a statement about the protests. “American Airlines must take responsibility for what its contractors do.”
American boasted a record revenue of $13.7 billion in 2025. LSG Sky Chefs is an international company based in Germany and operates in 49 countries. It reported $2.8 billion in revenue in 2023.
Workers joined the action in solidarity from all across the region. Delegations of UNITE HERE hotel workers came from New York, New Jersey, Baltimore and Connecticut. A busload of union hotel workers came from Washington, D.C. Philadelphia elected officials and union leaders addressed the rally.
The reason Sky Chefs bosses have been able to drag the negotiations out for seven years is that the airlines and their contractors are considered “essential” workers and are covered by the notorious Railway Labor Act. This anti-labor law imposes years of arbitration, mediation boards and other legal obstacles to the right to strike.
In 2024 airline caterers at Sky Chefs’ main competitor, Gate Gourmet, finally were able to vote to strike after eight years of stalled negotiations. The strike threat helped force important concessions from the bosses that led to a new contract. They won higher pay and a new, union health care plan.
Gate Gourmet workers are represented by a coalition of unions, including UNITE HERE; Teamsters; Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers; and the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union.
Sky Chefs workers protest the Grinch
MIAMI — At a demonstration at the Miami International Airport Dec. 19, UNITE HERE Local 355 mobilized 75 union members who work here and at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport to highlight their fight for a decent contract at Sky Chefs. The action had a holiday atmosphere, with signs reflecting the demands of the bosses, depicted as the Grinch, such as “More work, less pay, low wages now” and “Health care is for wimps.”
“Sky Chefs and American Airlines are not giving anything,” Patrick Volcin, a local UNITE HERE organizer, said. “We’ll keep up the fight until we get a good contract like the one Gate Gourmet workers got last year.”
Sonja Toledo, a union leader who has worked at Sky Chefs for over 20 years, said, “We are fighting for a dignified salary. No one can live on $14.50 an hour. The same is true for all the other airport workers here.
“We work with love, but also with sacrifice, through illness and sore muscles,” she added. “We need health insurance and respect as human beings.”
The union local is also in the middle of negotiations for contracts for other workers at the Miami airport, as well as for workers at the Miami Convention Center. Some of those workers joined the protest.
“The bosses always look to take care of themselves by paying us less,” Eliana Varela, an airport worker here for six years, told the Militant.
“The most important issue for us is fair pay and respect,” Robert Woder, a cashier at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport, said. “We’re here to serve. We’re the front-line people.”
He pointed to government attacks on immigrant workers today and the impact it has on them. “It affects so many of our co-workers who also have family members in their home countries who are trying to survive,” he said.
Workers picket Ebenezer ‘Sky Chef’ Scrooge
SAN FRANCISCO — Sky Chefs workers made a lot of noise as they and their supporters chanted, picketed and rallied Dec. 19 at the airport here. Their signs said, “It’s our turn,” signifying they are demanding wages and benefits like those won in 2024 by workers at Gate Gourmet.
One of the pickets, Nathaniel Barquedano, was part of the Gate Gourmet fight. Now he works at Sky Chefs. “It’s not right that some are making less than others, doing the same work,” he told the Militant.
The workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 2, passed out a flyer explaining safety is a key issue. The bosses are moving to cut the number of workers on delivery trucks from two to one.
A high point of the picket was a skit featuring a visit by Ebenezer “Sky Chef” Scrooge to the picket line, defending his right to put his profits ahead of workers’ pay and safety. He claimed workers didn’t deserve benefits and should be grateful to have any job at all. He was roundly booed and answered with chants demanding a contract.
Sky Chefs, Flying Food Group workers protest at LAX
LOS ANGELES — Over 50 UNITE HERE Local 11 members staged a lively protest outside two of the terminals at Los Angeles International Airport Dec. 17 about contract fights at two airline catering companies here. Workers at Sky Chefs prepare and deliver onboard meals for American Airlines, and catering workers at Flying Food Group service a number of international airlines.
Workers from restaurants and retail stores inside the airport also joined the protest.