Above photo: SFO workers from Unite Here Local 2 rally for contract improvements outside of Terminal 3, on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. Charles Russo/SFGATE.
Restaurant workers at San Francisco International Airport declared a general strike early Monday morning after more than nine months of negotiations with their employers.
Unite Here Local 2, the union representing SFO‘s food service workers, announced in a press release that 1,000 of SFO’s cashiers, cooks, baristas, bartenders, servers and dishwashers are participating in the strike. The workers are employed by 84 airport restaurant outlets, all of whom are represented by the SFO Airport Restaurant Employer Council.
“The workers’ compensation is currently not enough to live on,” Anand Singh, president of Unite Here Local 2, told SFGATE. “[The employers] have not moved nearly enough to get to the place where we can make a deal on a new contract. And that’s why we’ve had to go down this road.”
Singh said that most food service workers at SFO make around $17 an hour — a wage so low that many of them need to work two or three jobs.
SFGATE spoke to multiple SFO food service workers who indicated that low wages and the possibility of higher healthcare costs were their main motivators to go on strike.
Lucinda To works at both the United Club lounge and at Cat Cora’s Kitchen in SFO. On days when her shifts overlap, she wakes up at 3:30 a.m. and doesn’t get home until 11:00 p.m. She’s been working at SFO for 20 years and says she has never received a raise; currently, she’s getting by on the city’s minimum wage of $16.99 per hour.
“Wages for us are really, really low. It’s not enough for me to support my family,” To said. She added that she often has to sleep in her car or inside the airport between shifts, since there isn’t enough time for her to make the commute to and from her home in San Jose.
Margaret Manalo is a single mom who works as a lounge attendant at the Delta SkyClub. She used to work two jobs at SFO, but quit one of them to spend more time with her two daughters after the recent passing of her husband. “We need to have this strike happen, because the rate we have right now isn’t enough for how much we work every single morning,” Manalo said.
Manalo is also concerned about whether she’ll be able to continue providing her daughters with healthcare. SFO service workers currently have low co-pays and no premiums, but they allege their employers’ proposal would lead to a potentially sharp increase in out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
“I still have to provide them whatever they need; they’re still in school. So if we have better health benefits, it’s better for us,” Manalo said.
Union members held a demonstration outside the airport on Sept. 16, in which 41 workers and their supporters — some being state and city officials — were arrested and cited for blocking traffic at Terminal 3.
One of the supporters who was cited was Honey Mahogany, a local activist and candidate for San Francisco’s District 6 Supervisor position.
“We need to make sure that one job is enough to survive here in the Bay Area,” Mahogany said. “Airports have been chronically understaffed as people are starting to return to travelling. It’s put a real strain on the system and forced our workers into really unfair conditions. They’re having to work too hard, and they’re honestly not getting paid enough.”
SFO food service workers previously voted by a margin of 99.7% to authorize a strike, if a deal couldn’t be reached. Now, they’re following through.
“Our members of the airport are frustrated, they’re angry, and they’re organized,” Singh said.
SFGATE Local Editor Alex Shultz contributed to this report.