Perla Luna, an employee of Flying Food Group, reported that Unite Here union representatives barred her from a negotiation meeting and intimidated coworkers into silence. She highlighted harassment and retaliation within the company during an interview.
“When we were about to enter the room, Ramón stood at the door and told us we couldn’t enter. We had to go in with the company’s lawyers so they could see and let us in,” said Luna. “Our coworker Diana… suddenly union members were harassing her so that she would support Roberto. They basically made her contradict what she had said before. They told her that if she didn’t support Roberto, they would stop helping her. They also asked why I was familiar with the paper Kenia was handing out so that the union wouldn’t charge us so much money. I told them, what does that have to do with what Roberto did to me? They should be talking about Roberto’s actions and what he said.”
Unite Here Local 11 has been repeatedly accused of using aggressive tactics in Los Angeles food service labor disputes. These accusations include harassment, intimidation, and “mob-like” confrontations at Flying Food Group. In May 2025, employee Esperanza Maciel filed federal charges alleging that the union retaliated against her for seeking decertification. This marked the third wave of complaints from the same facility in recent months, as reported by the National Right to Work Committee.
California’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) manages thousands of retaliation and whistleblower complaints annually. However, statistics specific to unions in food service are not separately reported. According to labor advocates, intimidation and retaliation complaints tend to increase in heavily unionized sectors, with settlements often lacking transparency. These trends are reflected in DLSE enforcement reports.
Disputes over transparency in unionized food service workplaces have been documented in National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) case filings and academic labor studies. Workers have alleged being denied access to financial records or barred from observing contract negotiations. Such conflicts illustrate tensions over accountability and member participation in bargaining processes.
Luna is employed at Flying Food Group, a global airline catering and food services company that supplies meals to major carriers across the United States. At the company, she has been directly involved in labor-related proceedings, including disputes with UNITE HERE Local 11. She testified about workplace issues and her opposition to the reinstatement of a supervisor accused of misconduct. Luna also raised concerns about employee welfare, highlighting problems with union-handled health insurance and advocating for fair treatment of her coworkers at Flying Food Group, according to her interview with Labour Union Reporter.
Flying Food Group was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Chicago. It is a major airline catering and prepared-food company serving international carriers such as Air France, Singapore Airlines, and Lufthansa. The company employs several thousand workers across U.S. airports, including a unionized segment at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) represented by Unite Here Local 11. It has been the subject of multiple labor disputes in recent years.
