Health care for airport workers
December 21, 2020
When the national agreement for Gate Gourmet and other airport service companies was first negotiated, the unions agreed to waive the health care provisions for San Francisco, because, at that time, the company offered excellent health care.
However, the tide for benefits began to change and the local Teamsters and Hotel and Restaurant Employees (HERE) unions wanted to eliminate the waiver to ensure that their members got excellent health coverage.
Local 2785 Business Rep Terry Mullady worked with HERE’s Mike Casey and the Service Employees International Union to lobby the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Working with Supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Shamann Walton over the past two years, their effort was successful. In November, Mayor London Breed signed legislation requiring that anyone who works for the city/county of San Francisco, which includes SFO, must have a minimum level of healthcare coverage that may not be waived by union contract.
“With the pandemic, most of our 200 members at Gate Gourmet and 65 members at Flying Foods have been laid off,” says Mullady. “But when travel rebounds, our members will be guaranteed platinum level healthcare. That’s a huge win.”
