Catering workers at Gate Gourmet in the USA may strike as soon July 30, 2024, making very real the threat that your flights in August may have limited or no food or drink on many airlines from many airports.
Gate Gourmet Strike Could Lead To No Food And Drinks On Your Flights By The End Of The Month
We’ve focused a lot on the push by flight attendants at American Airlines to achieve a new contract and possibly strike, but that is not the only ongoing labor battle in the aviation industry. For months the United Here and Teamsters unions representing catering workers at Gate Gourmet have been locked in negotiations with management for pay raises.
The usual narrative applies here. Gate Gourmet has been an offer and the union says it is not good enough. The two sides are far enough apart and have been for so long that over the weekend the National Mediation Board released the union to a 30-day cooling-off period.
Per Gate Gourmet:
“While Gate Gourmet presented an industry-leading offer to the union at our latest negotiations, we were unfortunately unable to come to an agreement.”
But effective July 30, 2024, workers at Gate Gourmet will be permitted (under the Railway Labor Act) to engage in “self-help” including strikes.
The strikes would be well-timed to disrupt peak summer travel and may have some serious deleterious effects on your August flights, both domestic and international. Take United Airlines, for example. United no longer employs its own catering staff but has contracted this out. At Denver International Airport (DEN), United catering is handled by Gate Gourmet. Should a strike occur, thousands of flights could be left without food and drink from United’s most profitable hub.
To United and other carriers: I hope you are planning ahead now. I hope that on July 31st you won’t announce that most flights out of Gate Gourmet stations simply won’t have drinks or meals. I hope you are pushing Gate Gourmet to reach a deal with its workers.
CONCLUSION
Workers at Gate Gourmet are seeking a generous new contract and now have the green light to strike after a 30-day cooling-off period. We’ve seen that strikes will occur: Gate Gourmet workers struck in Toronto this spring before securing a new contract. Hopefully, the two sides can reach a deal but just in case, if you’re traveling on or after July 30th you may want to think ahead about bringing your own snacks and drinks.
May I recommend empty bottles that can be filled up in filtered drinking fountains post-security so you don’t have to pay inflated airport prices for bottles of water?
image: Gate Gourmet // hat tip: View From The Wing
Those who cater for airlines are not thanked enough for their work to be honest and most of these people are working below a living wage. It feels like there is strong incentive for the airlines to give in because they saw what happened at YYZ earlier in April and probably don’t want the fallout to happen during these peak summer travel months. The union there got what it wanted after a two week strike.
Workers should not be able to contract away a baseline wage and then go on gov’t assistance to survive: that represents a transfer of obligations from corporations to taxpayers. But these are low-skill jobs and the idea that wages exceeding other entry-level jobs are required strikes me as a bridge too far.
Yes, pay a living wage. But when everyone’s wages go up, prices go up, a vicious cycle that does not ultimately help workers.
Don’t disagree with what you’re saying here, but no one else wants to work this job except those at the entry level based on the statistics. So, it would be prudent for companies to increase pay for now and follow precedent with what was done at YYZ because they saw how it affected them
Just curious if the opposite bothers you as well? There are huge companies owned by billionaires (or billionaires at hedge funds) who think it’s fine to hand out applications for welfare to new hires.
Looking at you, Walmart.
I think it is disgusting and would tax the heck out of these companies.
I could be wrong, but it looks like the airline that will see a lesser amount of an impact is Delta because they use LSG Sky Chefs, Do&Co, and Newrest at their hubs. Still might impact them at outstations/non-hub or focus city destinations, but they’ll just pack double the catering for the return flight back to a hub or something.
Headline in Daily Mail today : a flight from Detroit across the pond , diverted to JFK because of bad food .
Airline ought to have waited to cater across the pond , no ?
Does no one verify food is stored properly , cooked properly , and employees wash hands in hot water ?
Heard that some middle eastern carriers did that during covid but it’s kinda hard to do that for DL because they probably have more flights on a daily basis.
Reminds me of 2017 when LAX had no catering and we got $100-$200 vouchers instead.. would be ok with something like that and bringing food from home!
Careful with your suggestions. You might have a seatmate on your next flight who brings greasy garlicky onions as their snack onboard, and then you would be smelling various aromas from both ends, lol.
@Matt
You state in the conclusion “Workers at Gate Gourmet are seeking a generous new contract..”.
How generous??
Also, nothing prevents UA or other airlines from making ad hoc purchases from other food vendors, even if it’s just beverages.
They rejected a 17% pay raise. I don’t care how long the current contract has been in place – every worker there is not compelled to work there. Inflation is not 17% per year.
Inflation since their last contract has been over 17% so that pay “raise” would be a pay cut. It took less than 30 seconds to disprove your anti labor lies. It must be hard putting out pro corporate lies while you have so much boot to lick.
Every worker faces inflation and is not entitled to wage rises that exceed it. My prices are higher too and I don’t want more cost increases passed onto me. Don’t like Gate Gourmet? Don’t work for them.
Your “boot licker” canrad is pathetic and false.
Go ahead and strike and I hope you are locked out.
I’m anti-union generally and will be peeved if my August flights are affected; however, you didn’t address the criticism that a 17% raise would still result in wages lower than those that would exist had they been rising in lockstep with inflation. I agree that nobody is compelled to work anywhere in a free market, but you stuck with the argument that a 17% raise would exceed inflation. Can you rebut Benjamin’s argument?
First, I’m not anti-union. That doesn’t mean I support every union initaitve for higher wages.
My point is that every worker did not start in 2014 and the idea that there is a reasonable expectation for wages to rise with inflation is not necesarily reasonable in a tight job market.
Those who started in 2022 or 2023 shuld be very happy with a 17% raise becuase inflation did not rise more than 17% during that period.
It’s the baseline that I object to. It’s not enoguh to say “no raise in X years.” Rather, how long has it been since each worker had a raise and is that commensurate with what the market pays for such labor?
Mr. Klint, as an obviously intune individual, I challenge you to spend a week on the take home pay of your lowest paid employee. Your logic is marred by the historic wealth imbalance in the US.
There’s nothing wrong with making money off of other people’s labor. However, nobody is truly worth the compensation packages of most C-level people at large companies. The value is based on a badly imbalanced base.
@Jack Cain:
I couldn’t do it. I mean, long-term if I had to I’d try to find a way to survive, but I recognize how hard it is.
But I’m not nearly as “corporate” as some may think on this issue and I sincerely do believe the C-Suite pay is obscene and not at all commensruate with the skillset required.
I also think that while hard work is typically essential to success, it is but one ingredeint and being at the right place at the right time (luck/Providence) and growing up in the right home (i.e. birth, beyond anyone’s control) tend to make a huge difference.
Benjamin, with that 17 percent inflation having mostly occurred under the present administration, then I assume you also advocate voting for one of the other alternatives for president this November? Or is your tongue stuck to the bottom of an old man’s shoe?
Considering the fact that the alternatives include a convicted felon who attempted a coup and a dog-eating serial sexual assaulter, even a cognitively-impaired octogenarian seems preferable.
I’m not sure where you get your info, but a 17% wage increase was never offered. The tentative agreement is a $1 wage increase with some added health coverage and a $1000 bonus that will be taxed at 22%. Maybe a 17% raise over 5 years you meant? Either way it’s still keeping workers at poverty levels.
“I hope that on July 31st you won’t announce that most flights out of Gate Gourmet stations simply won’t have drinks or meals.”
I’m pessimistic. From their perspective, sounds like a great why to save a few bucks while shifting the blame to a third party.
Not having any food on any US airline might not be a bad thing at all. There is nothing to crave there.
@Santastico … +1 . Only food edible on our airlines is the alcohol .
“I hope that on July 31st you won’t announce that most flights out of Gate Gourmet stations simply won’t have drinks or meals.”
That’s exactly what Air Canada did. Transatlantic flights were stopping in YUL to pickup catering. North America flights were a grab bag of what you would get… Double catered from another station, cold items delivered by scabs, something from the overhead bins which the FAs scrounged up.
It took AC about a week or two to get things under control where international flights picked up catering at another airport, shorting the domestic leg.
So no, I fully expect the US3 to announce that there’s no food or drink come August 1st.
Hire strike breakers and leave these people unemployed.
Unlike pilots/flight attendants/ramp/customer service/maintenance/ATC where those are more skilled positions that take a while to hire/train for, catering does not fall into that category. Fire them and hire new ones.
That’s really the question. Can replacements be found?
Leave 8000+ American workers jobless? Since yall r so pro corporate, y don’t u just go volunteer to cater the flights for free then? Support a corporation in Singapore, that’s profiting from American labor. & Not even scabs will take that job for the wages they pay. Some only make $13 an hour, so a 17% wage increase is unacceptable since the wages r at state minimums & workers voted to strike in 2019 due to low wages. Employees at gate gourmet r made up of retired military, professional chefs & cooks & food service with years of experience. But go ahead & get rid of them for unskilled, nonprofessionals to prepare ur first & business class meals.
I hope they hire “Biden’s border crossers” as their chefs to make ur food for $13 an hour & I hope none of them wash their hands.
Who does Singapore airlines use at EWR? 18 hours without food would make this flight impossible
Flying Food Group, so you’re safe
Bigger issue with this may be garbage disposal that Gate Gourmet is responsible. If you take food on the plane, it can be gate gourmet that takes your garbage along with the catering garbage.