Boston Logan airport food workers authorize strike ahead of World Cup
About 130 Logan food workers voted to authorize a strike as World Cup traffic nears, pressing for higher pay and affordable health coverage.
Travel demand at Boston Logan International Airport is colliding with labor unrest just as the summer airport calendar gets more lucrative. Roughly 130 servers, cooks, cashiers and other food and hospitality workers voted on June 19 to authorize a strike, giving UNITE HERE Local 26 the power to call a walkout if bargaining with concession operators does not improve. The workers are seeking higher wages and affordable health coverage.
The timing matters because Boston is set to absorb a wave of World Cup traffic, and airport food jobs become more valuable when every shift is stretched by longer lines, faster turnover and more passenger spending. FIFA says Boston will host seven matches, including one quarter-final, during a tournament that will run 104 games across 16 host cities in three countries. UNITE HERE warned earlier this month that major labor disruptions, including strikes, were possible at World Cup host stadiums, hotels and airports if contracts were not settled.
At Logan, the union is trying to turn that pressure into leverage before the airport gets even busier. The strike vote does not automatically send workers off the job, but it escalates the stakes for concession operators that rely on cooks, servers and cashiers to keep terminals moving during peak travel periods. In airport food service, the rhythm of the shift is dictated by flight banks, not lunch rushes, and workers say the compensation has not kept pace with the volume they handle.
Logan’s scale explains why the dispute is drawing attention beyond the terminals. Massport says the airport handled a record 43.5 million passengers in 2024 and more than 43 million in 2025, with direct access to more than 150 domestic and international destinations served by over 40 airlines. That traffic makes hospitality workers at the airport an especially powerful bargaining group when they decide to press for a better contract. If negotiations stay stalled, the union now has a strike vote in hand, and that could put real pressure on one of the region’s busiest summer workplaces.
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