Airline catering strike averted at last minute after unions reach tentative agreement with Gate Gourmet

A large-scale strike in the US airline catering industry involving 8,000 workers at 30 airports in the United States and Hawaii has been averted at the last minute after unions and international airline catering company Gate Gourmet rushed to reach a tentative agreement.

While “some critical details” remain to be resolved, workers represented by Unite Here and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters say they will not strike as planned starting Tuesday, July 29.

The strike would have a huge impact on the operations of a number of US and foreign airlines, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, as well as companies such as British Airways and Lufthansa.

According to Unite Here, some members earn as little as $13 an hour, and only a quarter of Gate Gourmet employees in the United States are eligible to join the company’s health plan.

The labor relations of airline catering staff are governed by the Railway Labor Act and the right to strike must first be approved by the National Mediation Board.

On June 29, NMB declared a deadlock in negotiations and gave the two parties a mandatory 30-day cooling-off period. As a result, the earliest date that Gate Gourmet catering workers could engage in “self-help” actions such as a strike was July 29.

In a short statement, Unite Here confirmed that a tentative agreement had been reached late on Friday night after desperate talks. However, the union warned that “a number of crucial details” still needed to be worked out before the tentative agreement could be finalised.

Jens Kuhlen, president of Gate Gourmet’s parent company, Gate Group for North America, welcomed the news, saying in a statement:

“Gate Gourmet has been negotiating in good faith with our union for many years to reach a labor agreement that recognizes our valued employees.”

“We are grateful to our employees for their hard work supporting the company, our customers and airline passengers. We look forward to a renewed partnership and long-term stability under this agreement.”

Airports that would be affected by the strike include Los Angeles and San Francisco, New York JFK and Newark, Boston Logan, Miami, Atlanta and Dallas Fort Worth.

Gate Gourmet began as the catering division of the now defunct Swiss airline Swissair. In the 1990s, the company experienced rapid growth as it began offering catering services to other airlines around the world.

When Swissair went bankrupt, Gate Gourmet was bought by Texas Pacific Group. The company subsequently changed hands several times and in 2019 came into the hands of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.

Unions have been negotiating with Gate Gourmet since 2017, with federal mediators getting involved a little over a year later. It would take another six years before NMB would grant the two sides a 30-day cooling-off period, which is required by law before airline unions can go on strike.

Unite Here feared that President Biden would try to delay the strike by creating an emergency presidential administration, but in the end those fears proved unfounded.

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