PHL restaurant workers vote to strike

Food service workers at two restaurants in the Philadelphia International Airport, who are employed by the company OTG, have voted to authorize a strike if their union negotiating committee deems it necessary.

The decision comes as the union has gone over five years without an active contract. And the union says it’s 16 months after workers and OTG reached an agreement on a contract that would include free health care, significant wage increases, back pay, more paid time off, and holiday pay for all workers.

A spokesperson for OTG said that “there has never been an agreement,” and that the union is spreading “false information.”

“Our crew members and their families are OTG’s top priority, and that’s why our contract proposal has included pay hikes, retroactive bonus payments, additional vacation and sick days as well as the most comprehensive health benefits in the business,” the OTG spokesperson said. “We are committed to reaching a deal with our crew members, and look forward to continuing negotiations.”

Forty employees of Independence Prime and 41 employees of Local Tavern, which are located in Terminals B and F, respectively, voted on Friday.

Their union is Unite Here Local 274, and it also includes about 150 other people who work at the other 13 Philadelphia airport restaurants that are operated by OTG. While the contract dispute affects all 235 OTG-employed members, the strike would only include Independence Prime and Local Tavern employees.

“Prime and Local are [two of] the busier restaurants. [OTG] can’t afford to shut them down,” said Musa Jabateh, who has worked full-time at Independence Prime for about three years. Jabateh, who has two children, said he has struggled without health insurance from his employer, which he thought he was going to get through the new contract.

Jabateh said he was present when the union negotiated with OTG management in 2022 on terms including wages and health insurance. “I was in the room when they agreed to it, but they refused to implement it,” Jabateh said.

Unite Here says workers bargained with OTG for four years and reached an agreement in mid-June 2022. Workers voted to accept those terms a week later. Local 274 president Rosslyn Wuchinich said that she has emails from OTG leaders acknowledging the agreement on contract terms and that workers voted to ratify it.

They then waited months to see the changes go into effect. In December, OTG told union representatives that there had been no agreement.

The union has been picketing for months, and filed multiple unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

The vote took place throughout the day Friday, with 95% of the workers authorizing the negotiation committee to decide whether and when to call a strike.

“We’re not just standing up for ourselves; we’re standing up for everyone at PHL,” said Michael Lagansky, a server at Local Tavern, noting that many workers cannot afford to pay for health care at the rates their employers offer.

OTG’s nonmanagement workers unionized in 2014 and got their first contract in 2015. It expired in 2018, and they’ve continued to work under the 2015 terms since then. The union and OTG management bargained on and off for several years to reach a new contract.

In the meantime, airport workers across various employers have won better pay through city legislation. That allowed OTG workers to see their wages increase even though their contract had expired, but the contract they thought they had reached last year would have included additional raises.