Airline caterer Gate Gourmet may face a strike at the end of the month, as the National Mediation Board released union UNITE HERE from negotiations and into a 30-day cooling off period. The caterer says they’ve made an “industry-leading offer” that the union has rejected.
There’s less political risk in not feeding passengers than in stranding them and seeing the price of airfares skyrocket, so it’s no surprise to see Gate Gourmet workers released before American Airlines flight attendants.
There are other caterers besides Gate Gourmet, of course. Lufthansa’s LSG Sky Chefs began as the in-house caterer of American airlines. There’s Flying Food Group. Worldwide do & co is among the most respected. However a Gate Gourmet strike would severely limit catering for carriers at many airports, and would be a gap not easily filled by other providers.
Both Flying Food Group and Gate Gourmet Servicing an Aircraft at the Same Time
Gate Gourmet was originally Swiss Air catering. It’s owned by Singapore’s state investment fund and Singaporean private equity, having acquired it from China’s HNA Group in 2019. @crucker)
It will be hard to notice their absence. Yesterday’s flight PHl-GSO – one biscotti. No water. No coffee. ‘Industry leading offer’. Hmm.
I don’t trust anything touched by strangers . Where have their hands been ? Not washing in hot water , I’ll wager . Might as well hire Bi-Done’s mob of illegals crossing the border , no ?
Used covid as an excuse to remove pillows and blankets. Probay use this as an excuse to.remove food and beverage
If Gate Gourmet workers set up pickets I guess the American Airlines flight attendants would not have a problem crossing the lines since they have an independent union. When I was on the picket line I saw a Teamster driver turn around and go away after he found out about our strike. I have had strong respect for the Teamsters ever since.
Gate gourmet? An oxymoron if ever there was one
I hope so !!!!!!!!!!!
McDonalds should be a replacement.
Whew! Delta uses LSG!
@Alert
Always some TWAT who brings politics into a discussion, what a toss pot!!
@Win Whitmire – Delta uses a lot of Gate Gourmet. It’s not as much about which airlines use which caterer, it’s more about where. Airlines will typically bid contracts by airport. Some airports like LAX and JFK have a bunch of different caterers, but many, even large, airports may only have 2-3 major providers. And some have just 1! While some caterers like Do & Co are generally consistently high quality, the biggest determinant of quality is what the airline customer is willing to spend to cater a given flight.
In a free society, it would be perfectly legal to fire workers who strike or otherwise refuse to work. I can dream, can’t I?
@Chris … “the biggest determinant of quality” ought to be the cleanliness of the people touching the food , proper food storage , proper food cooking and preparation , etc .
@Gary – Can you give readers some idea of how this would affect them? Is Gate Gourmet largely handling one airline or region or if they’re spread all over then which big cities and hubs will feel the pain? Are there normally competitors in their markets?
I really do not like unite here (intentional no caps). LOCK THEM OUT! LOCK THEM OUT!
This has been way over due. Unions for gate gourmet & sky chefs r involved. But I guess it’s only gate gourmet that has not made a deal, or SkyChefs is still in mediations. Some workers r still making $13 an hour due to these prolonged 5+ year mediations. Gate gourmet is a greedy Swiss owned company, that was bought by some company in Singapore. So f them. They need to pay up. Profiting off Americans, but can’t pay Americans a decent wage. employees work 12+ hour days 6 days a week to get these flights completed. & we r short staffed since the pay is & y’all on here commenting about washing hands? I hope u meant that for the scabs, & not the professional chefs, cooks, drivers, & food prep. I hope we do strike & I hope the scabs come & make ur food like for $13 an hour. & we do cater delta, Alaska, Hawaiian, united, Japan, & more. It depends on the airport, some carriers have multiple caterers. Air Canada uses both sky chefs & gate gourmet. Even fedex has their pilot meals catered by gate gourmet. Most the comments here suck. Like yall r anti union, anti labor, anti American, anti middle class? Ok enjoy ur inflation & I hope u never get a raise. since ur so pro corporate, how about yall just work for free then?
I say if AA company wants to act like stuck up brats because they want to refuse good offers from a catering company, then maybe the catering company should say to American Airlines- If your not gonna accept our deals in the contracts towards servings meals on your flights, then you guys can do without and we’ll go work for an airline company that will be more appreciative of our meals we provide. I think this would surely wake up AA company and make them realize that they screwed up and hopefully they will re-think their bad actions
Airlines don’t need this company’s “meals”. Let them strike. Airline meals have degraded so far below “food” that there’s no further need for a caterer. There is PLENTY of non-perishable food to serve on a plane.
Getting sick of all these people who want to rob customers by “striking”.
Going forward Gate Gourmet can serve Delta passengers on the Concourse before their flight is even cancelled…