Twin Cities workers at LSG Skychef, the nation?s largest airline catering firm, are getting their first pay raises since 2000.

The workers unanimously approved a local wage supplement in voting July 2 and 3. The wage agreement provides raises of at least 50 cents an hour in 2003, 2004 and 2005, said Wade Luneberg, lead negotiator for Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 17. This year?s raise is retroactive to March 7.

The raise is a rare piece of good news for the workers, who have:
? Endured massive layoffs as the airline industry struggles with fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
? Gone three years not only without a pay increase, but without a new master contract at the national level
? Lived in the shadow of INS raids as part of Operation Tarmac, a nationwide operation that targets improperly documented workers at airports.

Wage deal rewards longevity
The new wage agreement means no local Skychef worker will earn less than $10 an hour, Luneberg said. Some employees? wages will reach $21.

The raise was negotiated through a tie-in with Local 17?s wage scale at nine area hotels, Luneberg said, a linkage made during the last set of negotiations. That tie-in established a minimum increase of $1.40 over three years, ?which is quite respectable to start with,? he said.

The new wage supplement also includes a built-in longevity incentive that can provide new hires who stay 48 months an additional 40 cents an hour. Skychef has a notably high retention rate, Luneberg said, with more than 200 long-term employees.

Even though immigrants make up 65 percent of the local Skychef workforce, none who work at the plant adjacent to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport have been targeted in post-9/11 raids, Luneberg said.

?Compared to the rest of the country, we fared reasonably well,? he said. About a dozen HERE members working inside the airport were picked up by Operation Tarmac.

Half of local workers lost jobs
Local Skychef workers, however, were not spared by the colossal downsizing within the airline industry. Immediately after 9/11, Skychef laid off 300 of its 600 Twin Cities workers.

Nationally, the company laid off 5,000 of its 12,000 employees after many airlines halted in-flight catering.

Skychef currently is working with Northwest Airlines to test a ?Buy on Board? program, which allows passengers to purchase gourmet meals in-flight. Local workers prepare these meals, as well as meals still served to first-class passengers and on flights longer than four hours.

According to Luneberg, Northwest is faring relatively better than other airlines, but local Skychef managers are working the remaining 300 employees harder instead of hiring additional staff.

Skychef is owned by Lufthansa, but is run domestically out of Dallas as an independent subsidiary of the giant German corporation. The company has 80 percent of the airline food industry nationwide.

Though Skychef workers? wages are negotiated locally, all other benefits exist under a master contract at the national level.

Negotiations on that contract remain in a deep freeze since talks broke off in November, Luneberg said. Obstacles include Skychef?s refusal to include respect and dignity clauses in the contract, as well as the company?s resistance to full health and welfare benefits, he said. Workers at Skychef continue to work under the conditions of the expired contract.

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org