Olly Gomez has labored as a bartender at the San Francisco International Airport, the 7th busiest airport withinside the US and one of the busiest withinside the world, for approximately forty years.

“A hamburger priced $20 and I’m getting $15 an hour. It’s been a simply tough couple of years out right here at the airport.”

–MOLLY GOMEZ, WORKER AT SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT:

When the COVID-19 pandemic close down the eating place withinside the airport in which she labored, she misplaced her job. Ultimately, Gomez became employed on through an exclusive eating place and contractor withinside the airport in August 2021. She stuck COVID-19 quickly after returning to paintings—and, due to the fact she became hired through an exclusive contractor, she became ineligible for medical insurance on time and acquired no ill pay for the 2 weeks of labor she missed.

For the beyond 3 years, Gomez and around 1,000 different meal and beverage providers people on the airport—represented through UNITE HERE Local 2—were operating without a union agreement. (Around 30 employers at eighty-four exclusive eating places, cafes, and lounges throughout the airport negotiate together with the union.) As a result, they’ve acquired no every year salary will increase in the course of that time. In August, people voted ninety nine.7% in want of a strike authorization—and, on Sept. 26, they hit the wood line, shutting down the bulk of eating places withinside the airport.

Workers are pushing for higher wages, healthcare, and pension benefits, whilst employers at the airport were pushing for takeaways in agreement negotiations because of November 2021. The union has claimed the bulk of people make $17.05 an hour, simply over the modern-day minimal salary in San Francisco ($ 16. ninety-nine an hour). The airport’s minimal salary is indexed at $19.15 an hour.

Gomez’s modern-day salary is $15.10 an hour. As negotiations have dragged out for the beyond 3 years and people’s wages have stayed flat, meal and beverage charges withinside the airport have extended significantly, with excessive markups.

“A hamburger prices $20 and I’m getting $15 an hour:

It’s been a simply tough couple of years out right here on the airport,” stated Gomez. “All of them are elevating their charges and now no longer elevating our wages, so we’ve been disrespected and left out.”

On Friday, Sept. 16, dozens of people led a protest outdoors at Terminal three of the airport, which resulted withinside the arrest of forty-one protesters for blockading traffic.

“Workers are simply fed up,” brought Gomez. “Some of our personnel are operating and 3 jobs simply to make ends meet and that they’re snoozing in [they’re] cars, too, due to the fact they stay up to now away to return to paintings. We want the general public on our facet in this due to the fact they want to attend to us. We’ve sorted them. People rise at 3 withinside the morning to visit paintings and the enterprise is coming again; they’re getting cash once more and we’re now no longer.”

“We want the general public on our facet in this due to the fact they want to attend to us. We’ve sorted them. People rise at 3 withinside the morning to visit paintings and the enterprise is coming again; they’re getting cash once more and we’re now no longer.”

–MOLLY GOMEZ, WORKER AT SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT:

San Francisco has many of the maximum apartment charges withinside the US. According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, an unmarried man or woman dwelling withinside the metropolis and not using a kid desires to make $30.eighty an hour whilst operating full-time to aid themselves.

“Nobody will pay their payments or feed their youngsters on $17 an hour,” stated Anand Singh, president of UNITE HERE Local 2. “Working at SFO used to intend you had an amazing job, however maximum of the airport’s fast-meals people haven’t visible a boost in 3 years. The hamburger or burrito an airport employee serves is regularly priced greater than what she makes in a whole hour. Nine months of negotiations given us nowhere, and SFO’s meals provider people are bored with operating or maybe 3 jobs simply to survive.”

Lucinda To works jobs at the airport—as a front room attendant at the United Club and a server at Cat Cora’s Kitchen—regularly operating a 5 AM to 1 PM shift and any other from 3 PM to 10:30 PM.

“By the time I get off at 10:30 PM, I want to take a go back and forth to the parking domestic after which power domestic to San Jose, after which simply have 3 hours to sleep, and at 3 AM I must awaken and get prepared to head again to paintings [and] power again right here,” stated To. “Sometimes I want to sleep withinside the automobile at the airport due to the fact I’ll get 4 hours of sleep, [but] if I pass domestic, I’ll handiest get 3 hours of sleep.”

But, To explain, it receives worse: people must pay for parking at the airport, further to their low pay, and they regularly paint vacations and do not use more pay. She additionally mentioned the discrepancy withinside the prices of a fundamental meal at the airport exceeding her hourly salary.

“I can not survive. I want to aid my family, that’s why I want to paint jobs,” she brought.

SFO Airport and a press consultant for the meals and beverage contractors did now no longer straight away reply to requests for comment.

Starting Tuesday, Sept. 27, flight attendants started out picketing at airports across the US over terrible operating situations and pay. Southwest flight attendants are keeping pickets at eleven airports across the US in advance in their new union agreement negotiations. United Airlines flight attendants are keeping pickets at 15 airports over flight delays, scheduling issues, and flight cancellations.