Around 1,000 food workers at San Francisco International Airport
went on strike on Monday morning demanding higher pay after
contract negotiations stalled out. The strike will affect dozens of
food outlets and deny travelers prepared foods unless replacement
workers are found. Some packaged foods will still be available at
retail shops. Anand Singh, president of Unite Here Local 2, the food
workers’ union, said workers and a group of restaurant owners
remained “very far apart” in negotiations. Workers make an average
of $17.05 an hour and want higher wages and to maintain their current
health care benefits. Nine months of negotiations got us nowhere, and
SFO’s food service workers are tired of working two or even three jobs
just to survive,” Singh said in a statement. The union estimates around
10% of workers are working two different jobs across two businesses to
earn enough to survive. Maria Soza Rodriguez worked for more than a
decade at both a Burger King and Urban Tortilla restaurant at SFO,
laboring for a combined 15 hours each day. In May, the South San
Francisco resident quit to organize full-time with Unite Here Local 2.