CHICAGO _ Workers at O'Hare International Airport's restaurants, bars and coffee shops walked off the job at noon on Thursday _ one of the busiest travel days of the year _ to push for higher wages and affordable health care. Airport restaurants continued to operate during the strike.
Noah Carson-Nelson, a spokesman for UNITE HERE Local 1, the union which represents workers employed at Starbucks, Chili's Too, Rick Bayless' Tortas Frontera and other airport restaurants, said the employees were expected to picket outside terminals until at least 5 p.m. The operator of the affected restaurants, HMSHost, said in a statement that the locations will remain open despite the disruption.
The union said it represents about 1,200 workers at O'Hare, including cooks, servers, busboys, bartenders and baristas.
The employees have been working under an expired contract since August. They voted to authorize a strike earlier this month, with 84 percent of votes in favor of such a move. The union would not say how many votes were cast.
HMSHost and the union met at the bargaining table in early December and aren't scheduled to resume discussions until January.
"It is unfortunate that Local 1 seems determined to inconvenience travelers despite our continued progress at the bargaining table," HMSHost said in a statement.
