Striking Phoenix Airport Employees Return To Work

PHOENIX, AZ — Sky Harbor airport foodservice employees have returned to work following a 10-day strike during the busiest travel week of the year, according to Unite Here Local 11, the union representing them.

The employees of HMS Host, the company that runs many coffee shops and other eateries in the airport, began their strike Nov. 22 and returned to work Thursday.

The striking workers demanded a new contract with fair raises, affordable health insurance, a company-paid retirement contribution, protections for workers’ tips, and strong contract language for equal opportunity and protection from discrimination, according to a news release from the union.

“Our intention with our strike was to bring more attention to the company’s stinginess after four years of negotiations, and to do it at a time when the company would be forced to recognize the value of our labor most - Thanksgiving,” Victoria Stahl, a barista who works in the airport's terminal four, said in the news release. “We did that and now we are ready to go back to the negotiating table.”

The union walked away from negotiations with HMS Host in 2018, the company said.

In early November, HMS Host said it offered the union a contract with pay increases, with many positions paying more than $15 an hour and a health care plan that covers 90 percent.

"The package is top tier for the Phoenix market," the company said in a Monday news release.

HMS Host called the strike "both puzzling and counterproductive" in the release.
The company added that more than 85 percent of its employees remained on the job during the strike, meaning that it was business as usual at most HMS Host eateries in the airport.

During the strike, the union filed several charges of unfair labor practices against HMS Host, accusing the company of interfering with workers' labor rights by doing things like asking workers if they would be going on strike, limiting workers' speech while they were on the job, and surveilling workers’ protected activity.

“We want to thank the community for all of the support they showed us while we’ve been on strike,” Beatriz Topete, organizing director with UNITE HERE Local 11, said in the release. “The tweets from travelers, the thumbs up from other airport workers, the daily deliveries of food and drinks all kept us going. The generosity of our labor partners, especially the UFCW Local 99 and the Arizona AFL-CIO, made this Thanksgiving one we will remember for the rest of our lives. Solidarity means everything.”

In addition to its demands for better pay and benefits, Local 11 announced last week a request to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate HMS Host for "substantial disparities in hiring, promotion, and compensation along racial lines among HMS Host workers at Sky Harbor airport."

The union said it would return to the negotiation table with a "focus on ensuring equality at work on the basis of race, gender, age, and sexual orientation."

HMS Host denied what it called the union's "baseless claims of racial discrimination over wages." The company added that wages are determined through collective bargaining between the union and itself.