LSG Sky Chefs workers escalate call for better wages and health care benefits; sound the alarm regarding the expansion of a catering protocol that puts some workers at risk

NATIONWIDE—Hundreds of airline catering workers and their supporters took action today at several U.S. airports, calling on American Airlines to act to end low wages and unaffordable health care in the airline catering industry. Employed by airline catering company LSG Sky Chefs, the workers provide inflight food and beverage services for major airlines including American, Delta, and United. The workers are members of UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers’ union. Protests ranging from pickets to street theater to die-ins are to take place in Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and Seattle between today and tomorrow.

“I’ve worked at LSG Sky Chefs for over 30 years, but I am still earning less than $16 per hour. We all know that $16 an hour isn’t enough to live on in Miami,” said Sonia Toledo, a Sky Chefs assembly worker at MIA Airport in Miami and member of UNITE HERE Local 355. “Much of the work that I do is for American Airlines, which is earning billions in revenue every quarter, but after 30 years at Sky Chefs I can’t even dream about retiring because I haven’t been able to save enough. It’s our turn at Sky Chefs for a contract with the wages and the health care that we deserve.”

LSG Sky Chefs workers prepare, pack, and deliver food and beverages served aboard flights for American, Delta, United, and other major U.S. airlines. Though their work is essential to airline operations, requiring skill and precision to prevent flight delays and ensure food safety, workers report that they earn unlivable wages, and that the employer-provided health care plan is too expensive. Meanwhile, American reported record third-quarter revenue of $13.7 billion in 2025.

Sky Chefs workers have been working to negotiate a new union contract with improved wages and benefits since their contract became amendable at the end of 2018. Last year, workers with Sky Chefs’ primary competitor Gate Gourmet, who cater flights for the same airlines, successfully won a life-changing new contract with significant raises and better, affordable health care.

Workers also called attention to safety concerns raised by the expansion of a single operator catering protocol at certain airports. Under this protocol, instead of catering flights with two workers, one driver working alone approaches the aircraft in the truck and caters the flight without assistance.

“The job I do now was done by two people earlier this year. Now, my back hurts, my shoulder hurts. Sometimes the carts are so heavy I have to use all of my strength to move it,” said Morris Kuyateh, a driver at MSP Airport in Minneapolis and a member of UNITE HERE Local 17, “I don’t know how long I can continue to do this work, and I have already seen one of my coworkers seriously injured when he was pinned between the catering truck and a plane. This new protocol puts drivers at risk, and we are asking the airlines not to allow for it to be used in catering their flights.”

“Through these national airport actions, Sky Chefs workers across the country are making it clear that they are done waiting for the wages, benefits, and safety protections that they deserve,” said UNITE HERE President Gwen Mills. “No worker should clock in wondering whether their health and safety may be at risk. Over the years, Sky Chefs workers have raised concerns with heat safety while driving on hot airport tarmacs, catering trucks with faulty equipment including backup safety cameras, and unusually heavy doors. And the accountability for workers’ safety does not lie with Sky Chefs alone: American Airlines must take responsibility for what its contractors do.”

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UNITE HERE represents 275,000 workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries in the U.S. and Canada. This includes 10,000 workers at LSG Sky Chefs.