Hundreds of airline catering workers at San Francisco International Airport plan to demonstrate Tuesday as they push for better pay and benefits — spotlighting the ever-present debate about what makes for a living wage in the Bay Area.
The protest, planned for late afternoon outside the departures level of Terminal 2, comes during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. It’s a prelude to a possible strike by workers at two catering companies, Gate Gourmet and LSG Sky Chefs.
About 1,500 workers voted in June to strike, but because their jobs are in transportation, they need permission from the National Mediation Board, a federal agency, to strike. If they do, flights could theoretically leave without food and drinks, although representatives for United Airlines, SFO’s largest carrier, and American Airlines said they have backup plans in place.
The workers are members of the same Unite Here Local 2 Union that led Marriott housekeepers to walk out last year.
All workers at SFO, which is overseen by the city of San Francisco, have a minimum wage of $17.66 an hour — well above the California minimum of $12 an hour for larger employers and even San Francisco’s $15.59 an hour minimum. Under an airport program, some workers in support services such as baggage handling, ground servicing, catering, cargo fueling, aircraft cleaning and passenger boarding bridges get at least $18.16 an hour.
Even at those rates, businesses at SFO struggle like other employers to hire at a time of record-low unemployment in the state. Workers say they should get higher pay and better benefits to make ends meet given the nearly prohibitive cost of living in the Bay Area.
“We think one job should be enough,” Melieni Cruz, 40, who works for LSG Sky Chefs, said. “I feel like we deserve a better future. We deserve affordable medical and better wages. They make the menu, and we come through for them. I feel like they should do the same for us.”
This time last year, Cruz said she was popping painkillers while packing drinks for international priority American Airlines passengers to save money for a surgery to remove ovarian cysts. She took the job three years ago because of the health care benefits, but even though she pays $150 a month for coverage, she said she struggled to afford the deductible that would be triggered by her $8,000 surgery on an $18.16 hourly wage. She said she voted to strike because she doesn’t want to be afraid to go to the doctor anymore.
Spokesman David Margulies of LSG Sky Chefs, a German firm that employs about 600 people at SFO, said in an email that the company “continues bargaining in good faith.” More negotiations are scheduled for early 2020.
Gate Gourmet, a Swiss firm that employs about 1,000 people at SFO, said it continued to negotiate with the union to reach a fair and competitive agreement.
“Gate Gourmet has made significant improvements for our people in wages and benefits across the U.S., and our negotiations with the union to date include additional investments,” spokeswoman Nancy Jewell said in an email. “As always, we remain focused on excellent service to our airline customers in the U.S. and the passengers they serve.”
Both companies declined Chronicle requests to visit their facilities, citing security concerns, and they also declined to provide more information about operational costs or hiring challenges.
The debate over a living wage is hardly unique to the airport. The cost of living in the San Francisco metro area spiked 59% from 2000 to 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the average hourly wage in the transportation sector rose only 44%.
“If we have teachers who are driving Lyft and Uber, it breaks my heart, but it’s where we’re at in the Bay Area, sadly,” said Emylene Aspilla, SFO’s director of social responsibility and community sustainability. “At the same time, we know that we want to be able to have some standards.”
Aspilla said the airport “has been a leader in making sure our workers ... are getting good wages and getting time off.”
The seventh busiest airport in the country, SFO generated $10.6 billion in revenue and contributed $3.3 billion in county, state and federal taxes from July 2017 to June 2018, more than the year before, according its 2019 economic impact report. More than 46,000 people work at SFO, including employees of the airport, federal government and private businesses. They on average earned just above $80,000 a year — less than the $82,000 considered low-income by San Francisco government.
Aspilla said employers are scrambling to recruit and retain workers with wages and other support. Transportation Security Administration background checks can make hiring even harder. Businesses are also subject to the whims of airlines, which might change flight schedules, and the airport, which hurt some companies’ revenue when it shut down a runway for a week in September.
When airlines started outsourcing jobs, wages plummeted, said Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, who crunched federal data. When San Francisco implemented minimum compensation standards, people were more motivated to stay in their jobs, Jacobs said. But as the cost of living has skyrocketed, airport wages became less competitive, he said.
“We finally did increase that wage, but it’s not enough to survive in San Francisco — it’s not even close,” Supervisor Hillary Ronen said.
Airlines, she said, “can afford to pay more and they should, not only as a matter of morality, but practicality, if they want to have a stable workforce.”
If airlines’ costs increase, however, they may pass it on to travelers, who would gripe — though Jacobs said his research shows that higher wage costs might have only a small effect on plane tickets.
Some workers at SFO say they have to take on more than one job to make ends meet.
Nicaraguan immigrant Maria Soza Rodriguez, 32, has been working in food service at the airport since she graduated from high school. Just before her 8-year-old son was born, she took on a second job. Between her and her husband’s $3,500-a-month mortgage and her kids’ before- and after-school care plus weekend activities, one $18.30-an-hour job wasn’t enough. She does get health care.
Rodriguez works 15 hours a day and returns home when her family is asleep.
“I’m tired, and my kids are suffering because of it,” Rodriguez said recently inside the airport, her voice growing hoarse and eyes welling. “It sucks because I want to give them a roof and I have to decide — do I work or do I not pay my bills? I feel that’s a decision that nobody should decide.”
Rodriguez said she’s considered selling her house and moving to Texas, but needs to support her local family and fears losing union protection if she leaves.
The owner of Urban Tortilla, where Rodriguez works, declined to comment. The owner of Gate 74 Inc., which runs the Burger King franchise where she also works, couldn’t be reached.
Some people believe they have no choice but to stay in their jobs.
“I want to work there because we need to survive,” said Louisa Cancio, 61, who is from the Philippines and has worked 16 years for ABM, a company that contracts with airlines to clean and stock airplanes.
Her co-worker Mila Gros Mendoza, 68, also from the Philippines, fears she won’t get hired elsewhere because of her age and said she can’t retire because she doesn’t have enough money. They each make $19.46 an hour and are members of Service Employees International Union United Service Workers West.
“Our team members play a vital role in the traveler experience, and we are proud to be able to offer them competitive pay and benefits,” ABM spokeswoman Alex Varjan said in an email.
American Airlines, responsible for 8% of SFO’s air traffic, said it respects union rights and urged resolution through collective bargaining.
“We understand that a new contract will, ultimately, increase the costs to LSG Sky Chef’s customers, including American,” spokesman Joshua Freed said in an email. “American is one customer among many at the catering companies and doesn’t dictate wages or benefits to the catering companies.”
United, which accounted for 45% of SFO’s flight traffic last year, said resolution of the dispute is up to its contractors.
“Because we don’t maintain a direct employer relationships with our vendors’ employees, we rely on them to work together to determine appropriate wages,” spokeswoman Rachael Rivas said.
Some workers think otherwise. Nathanael Baquedano has worked for Gate Gourmet packing Champagne for United priority passengers for more than 20 years and drives for Uber, but he said he still has thousands of dollars of medical debt.
“They have to take responsibility,” he said. “They can’t wash their hands. They know we are suffering here.”
Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @mallorymoench
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