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.
Under a TUC-sponsored deal which the workers voted to accept on 28 September, GG said it would reinstate 187 workers and give voluntary-redundancy pay-offs to 482 others, but only if every one of 144 workers identified by GG for compulsory redundancy (including those picked as union "troublemakers") signed a deal to accept a compulsory pay-off, not to sue Gate Gourmet for unfair dismissal or unlawful imprisonment, and never to seek a job with GG or any associated company in future.
The 144 (or, according to some reports, rather more) found out who they were, and received their letters from GG, only at the end of October.
After the long delay - during which the workers, who had thought they had a deal, found themselves still on the picket line, still on £200 a month sustenance from the union - most GG workers were in no mood to trust either GG or the officials of their union, the TGWU, and, according to a GG senior steward, only 12 of them had signed the documents by the deadline set by the company, 16 November.
GG had insisted publicly that it would not even consider reinstating any of the locked-out workers unless all 144 (or more) signed. But on 17 November, in a sudden U-turn, Gate Gourmet issued a statement saying that:
Gate Gourmet will start to contact a number of former employees who were dismissed for participating in the illegal wildcat strike in August. Interviews will be arranged for those contacted who may wish to shortly receive an offer of re-engagement which the company will consider after successful interviews are held.
Eric Born, Managing Director of Gate Gourmet UK & Ireland, said:
"We have decided, in agreement with the trade union, to accelerate the process and are taking steps to enable the former employees to receive a compensation payment and ensure a faster resumption of full service for our customers.
"Gate Gourmet’s decision to accelerate the implementation of the agreement means we will not wait for all former employees to sign the compromise agreement before any get their individual cases sorted out. Nor will we allow the refusal by some to deny progress for others.
"We... hope to conclude matters as quickly as possible. Overall our main priority is to restore full service levels to British Airways short-haul flights".
We do not know how many workers Gate Gourmet is offering reinstatement to, or why it has made this turn.
Maybe it is under pressure from BA, the airline it supplies meals to. As the GG statement indicates, even now GG has not been able to reach full production with the scab workforce recruited since the lock-out.
Maybe it thinks that the workers are so frustrated and demoralised that virtually none will respond to the offer of selective reinstatement, and the gesture will cost them nothing.
Maybe the Employment Tribunal claims for unfair dismissal taken out by a large number of the workers just before the deadline for such claims (9 November) worry GG, and it reckons through this move to get the claims withdrawn, or at least trade-union support for the claims removed.
We don't know. We will investigate. In the meantime, however, the GG workers still need support. Their picket line is at the Beacon Road roundabout on the Southern Perimeter Road, a short distance south-west from the Terminal Four roundabout.
“We have decided, in agreement with the trade union, to accelerate the process and are taking steps to enable the former employees to receive a compensation payment and ensure a faster resumption of full service for our customers.
“Gate Gourmet’s decision to accelerate the implementation of the agreement means we will not wait for all former employees to sign the compromise agreement before any get their individual cases sorted out. Nor will we allow the refusal by some to deny progress for others.
“We remain committed to following the spirit and the letter of our September agreement with the TGWU and hope to conclude matters as quickly as possible. Overall our main priority is to restore full service levels to British Airways short-haul flights”.
Comments
escalation at the gate gourmet strike at duesseldorf
last friday (18/11/05), a scab van tried to break through the picket line (fortunately, no one was injured), supported by private cops, later when the real cops arrived they forced (threatening the striking workers, that they could arrest them) a way for the scab
- a report with some photos from the 18/11 on indymedia germany, the press relaease of the german food workers union (pdf) (sorry, both in german)
TGWU branch resolution
Motion passed by TGWU 1/1148 branch on 08/11/05
This Branch salutes the TGWU members in Gate Gourmet who resisted extreme Management bullying and stood up for trade union principle in their dispute which began in August 2005. We further applaud the actions of other TGWU members who work at Heathrow who took solidarity action in support of their fellow workers who were locked out. We note the subsequent victimisation of stewards at Heathrow by BA and pledge them our support.
We note the outsourcing and mass use of agency labour in the catering and airline businesses that are the result of the deregulated labour market justified by 'New Labour'.
We deplore the casualisation and low pay that is the consequence and condemn Gate Gourmet Managements attempts to force pay and conditions even further down and their intimidatory tactics to achieve this.
We note the apparent compromise deal announced in September but are concerned that none of the promised terms, both redundancy payments (either compulsory or voluntary) or reinstatement have been delivered to the locked out Gate Gourmet workers as of today (8/11/05).
Therefore we agree to write to TGWU General Secretary to call on him to :
*Clarify the current position on the deal agreed by the workers in September; and explain how the Union intends to implement it.
*Review the level of payment to the remaining locked out Gate Gourmet TGWU members in the light of the delay of its delivery
*Fight for improvements in trade union rights including the legal right to take solidarity action and the right to reinstatement and campaign for the Labour Government to fully implement the European Directive on rights for agency and temporary workers.
We further agree to make a Branch donation to the Gate Gourmet workers hardship fund.