Originally Posted by flyingcrooked

Yes, that seems right. I haven't followed this issue so don't know for sure what the constraints are, but a quick read now of some news stories suggests there is no legal bar to AC engaging another catering company, or doing other things to get food on board without delay. They did not do that (or did not do it sufficiently well to prevent delays).

My guess is that from the point of view of UK/EU regulation (which is the context in which this came up a couple of posts up), labour disputes from things like caterers are to be expected as part of the ordinary run of operations, just like lightning strikes and occasional collisions between the jet bridge and the plane. They are not genuinely extraordinary in the sense there's nothing an airline could reasonably do to prevent the delay from happening given the strike.