San Francisco airport food court workers end three-day strike with tentative agreement

A three-day walkout that shut down most eateries at San Francisco International Airport has ended, and a tentative contract that includes pay raises and health care for about 1,000 workers has been awarded.

The strike ended at midnight on Wednesday after a preliminary deal was reached, and workers returned to work on Thursday, the union said. Labor will vote on Sunday to approve a contract that includes free family health care and “significant increases”, Unite Here said.

Baristas, cooks, dishwashers, bartenders, waiters and waitresses a strike was announced on Monday to demand a salary increase, and the union representing them advises travelers at the airport to take food with them.

Most workers earned $17.05 an hour and had not received a raise in three years, and the workers walked off the job after nine months of negotiations, Unite Here reported.

The minimum wage at San Francisco Airport is $19.15 an hour to San Francisco Minimum Compensation Ordinance. The union and employers had previously agreed to drop the minimum, but have jointly decided to return to it in 2019 unless a higher rate is offered, a Unite Here spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch in an email.

“Employers are hiding behind a late waiver and blatantly ignoring a clear contract provision requiring performance [minimum compensation ordinance]” he said.

The airport workers union negotiated with 30 different employers at 84 food and beverage outlets, all of which were represented by the SFO Airport Restaurant Employers Council. A spokeswoman for the group and chief negotiator did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2020, the living wage in San Francisco County for a single adult without dependents was $30.81 an hour, according to calculator developed by Amy Glasmeyer, a professor of economic geography and regional planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“This strike was worth it to give my family a better life,” Blanca Gay, a diner worker at SFO for 30 years and a member of the UNITE HERE Local 2 bargaining committee, said in a statement released by Unite Here. “My son is in college, but he had to go from full-time to part-time so he could work. Thanks to the raises we won, I can help my son go back to school full-time. All the hard work and sacrifice the strikes paid off for my family.”

“This victory shows the world that working in fast food can really be a good, family-supporting job, all because workers had the courage to strike,” said Anand Singh, president of Unite Here’s local, which represents more than 15,000 workers. at San Francisco Airport, Oakland International Airport, hotels, restaurants, cafeterias and sports stadiums.

San Francisco airport officials acknowledged that the labor action affected service in restaurants and lounges. “Some food and drink outlets are closed, while others remain open with limited hours and offers,” the SFO said in an email on Monday statement.

The airport on Thursday also welcomed the tentative agreement but cautioned against it site that “hours of operation and food offerings may be limited today as workers and deliveries return to normal schedules.”