Workers' Liberty

Organised by Ealing Trades Union Council

On 5 January British Airways sacked a second shop steward for involvement in the Heathrow Airport baggage handlers’ strike of 11-12 August in support of the Gate Gourmet catering workers, producing food for BA's flights, who were locked out on 10 August.

Airline catering firm Gate Gourmet has said that it will after all reinstate some of the 700 Heathrow workers it locked out on 10 August.

At the Gate Gourmet picket at Heathrow last week there was still confusion about what was happening to implement the deal outstanding since September. No one has had it confirmed that they will receive compulsory or voluntary redundancy payments, let alone if they are to be reinstated.

British Airways finally signed a new catering contract with Gate Gourmet on 20 October, and over the days since then there has been some movement on the deal supposedly made by Gate Gourmet with the TGWU on 26 September to end the lock-out of GG workers at Heathrow. But no worker has yet been reinstated, and it is still not clear when, or whether, any workers will be reinstated.

By Emma Parsons

The Gate Gourmet catering workers at Heathrow Airport, London, remain locked out, months after being sacked and three weeks after they voted for a deal they thought would end the dispute.

As of 18 October, nearly three weeks after Gate Gourmet appeared to have signed a deal for some reinstatements, Gate Gourmet workers are still locked out. Meanwhile, Gate Gourmet workers in Dusseldorf, Germany, have struck in a separate dispute.

By Alan Porter

Under a deal negotiated by the TGWU — and announced to the press before consulting its members — just 187 of 713 workers sacked by Gate Gourmet the airline catering company based at Heathrow, back in August will be reinstated.

Under pressure from TGWU officials - who had announced to the press, before consulting the union members, that they had a deal - the locked-out Gate Gourmet workers have accepted a deal which loses most of their jobs and sees the union activists sacked.

According to the Financial Times (27 September). "Gate Gourmet, the troubled airline catering company, and the Transport and General Workers Union, announced last night that they had agreed a deal to resolve their long-running industrial dispute". It doesn't look good.

Meeting YMCA, Wednesday, 7:30pm, Oct 5th
Download leaflet (draft 3) from here.
This meeting is still going ahead despite the calling off of the Gate Gourmet dispute. Why?
1) The speaker and 7 other Gate Gourmet workers are anxious to come and continue the meeting. They point out that their struggle is not yet over.

According to the Financial Times on 24 September, a "new deal to resolve Heathrow catering dispute" is imminent between the TGWU and Gate Gourmet. But it falls very far short of winning back the locked-out workers' jobs.

By Chris Hickey

TUC congress expressed “profound anger” at the dismissal of Gate Gourmet airline-catering workers at Heathrow Airport, who were sacked by their employers simply in order to replace them all by agency workers on worse pay and conditions.

On 10 August the international catering firm Gate Gourmet sacked some 670 workers, mainly Asian women, at Heathrow for “illegal strike action”.

Gate Gourmet had brought in 120 “seasonal workers” despite planning a restructuring “…that was likely to see hundreds of full-time staff fired” (Financial Times briefing, 23 August). Laying off permanent staff whilst hiring temporary staff was obviously a move to casualisation and seasonal working.

By Chris Hickey

On 10 August the international catering firm Gate Gourmet sacked some 670, mainly Asian women, workers at Heathrow for “illegal strike action”.

The new issue of Tubeworker reports from Heathrow, calling for solidarity with the sacked Gate Gourmet workers.

Workplace reports include the latest on the stations shorter working week, Metronet out-sourcing, and the safety issues following the bombings.

Click 'read more' to read the text; 'download' to download.

As we write this, the dispute involving over six hundred sacked workers at Heathrow catering company Gate Gourmet enters a critical stage. The issues in this dispute are clear and that has won the workers a great deal of public sympathy. Their bosses deliberately set out to sack these full-time unionised workers and replace them with lower paid, casualised workers.