50+ workers who prepare food for United and other airlines to hold press conference outside, attend embattled airline’s annual shareholder meeting

PRESS ADVISORY FOR MAY 24, 2017

What: Airline food worker protest and press conference at annual United shareholder meeting
When: Wednesday, May 24, 8:15am
Where: Sidewalk outside Willis Tower (exact location TBD), Chicago, IL
Who: Airline food workers at O’Hare who prepare, pack and deliver food and beverages aboard commercial aircraft; members of UNITE HERE Local 1

NOTE: Airline food workers are available now through May 24 for interviews on their personal experiences working to prepare and deliver food for United and other major airlines, including their poor working conditions and the impact that poverty wages has on them, their families, and their communities.

Why:
The airline industry is booming, with 2016 profits reaching a record $35 billion for U.S. carriers. However, those record profits have translated into neither record customer service for airline passengers, nor to dignified wages and working conditions for thousands of airline catering food workers. United continues to deeply reduce quality of customer service while its food service contractors pay workers poverty wages.

At O’Hare, the lowest wage for workers who prepare food for United and other airlines is $3.15 below the minimum legal wage for airport workers. Such low wages mean that United food service workers, many of them people of color and/or immigrants, are forced into poverty.

On Wednesday, May 24th, workers in Chicago will follow the lead of United passengers and declare on the occasion of the airline’s annual shareholder meeting that they, together with thousands more food service workers at airports across the country, are FED UP with an industry that has profited for too long on the indignity of sub-minimum wages and reprehensible working conditions.