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. [1]

At Heathrow, none of the Gate Gourmet workers has been reinstated, or given a date for reinstatement. The latest news is that BA may, after all, refuse to sign a new contract with GG - in which case, probably, the whole deal will evaporate. The workers still need support.

From the deal announced by the TGWU to the press on 26 September, and voted through by a mass meeting on 28 September, it appeared that Gate Gourmet had at least agreed to give their jobs back to 187 workers (out of the 713 locked out).

Not exactly. Not exactly at all. No-one has their job back yet, or a date for restarting work. The workers do not know who the 187 are.

It appears that GG's stalling is to do with negotiations between GG and BA (the airline it supplies with meals). On 14 October, Reuters news agency carried a report that:

Gate Gourmet are expecting BA to sign next week... [for a deal] to supply meals for the next five years.

A Gate Gourmet spokeswoman declined to comment... "The labor issues have been resolved. There should be no reason for the companies to delay any longer," T&G National Secretary Brendan Gold said in a statement.

Reuters reports that the delay is due to some individual GG workers not signing up for the deal (all the workers, including those to be made compulsorily redundant, have to endorse the deal individually for GG to implement it), but in fact no workers have had individual letters to sign.

If BA refuses to sign a new contract - which was the rumour current today - then the odds must be that GG's owners will put the business into bankruptcy, evading all their obligations under the supposed deal, and giving themselves the option of starting up again via a new company.

In the meantime, all the GG workers are still locked out. Indefinitely. They still need support - on the picket line at Heathrow, by fund-raising, etc.

GG workers do not have the text of the TGWU-TUC-GG agreement in writing, but so far they understand it, Gate Gourmet insists that the deal is conditional on every one of the 144 workers sacked (under the agreement between the TGWU and Gate Gourmet) individually signing a letter accepting their dismissal and renouncing their right to take an industrial tribunal case.

If a single one refuses to sign, then Gate Gourmet may renege on the reinstatements - even if BA has renewed the contract. The union has committed itself to accepting 144 sackings. Gate Gourmet has not definitely committed itself to taking 187 workers back.

The 144 sacked workers are supposed to receive compensation. It is not clear whether any compensation will be paid to the seven of them singled out by Gate Gourmet as "troublemakers", i.e. union activists. (Some workers say no, it won't; some say, yes, it will. None of them has the agreement in writing).

For sure, the workers do not know who the 144 are. And they do not know what, if anything, the TGWU is doing about its promise that (though it cannot guarantee anything) it will do its best to get the 144 alternative jobs at Heathrow. Or, if the TGWU does do something about that, who gets priority among the 144 for whatever jobs are available.

Under the September deal, according to the Financial Times, GG said that there were 397 locked-out workers whom it was willing to take back, but 210 of those had said they would prefer voluntary redundancy.

If GG eventually does grant reinstatements - it is still not certain that it will reinstate anyone at all - and by then some of the 187 say they would prefer voluntary redundancy (which, as the weeks go by, must be probable) - it is not clear what will happen then. Will the voluntary redundancy pay-outs be available to them? Will the numbers reinstated be made up by withdrawing the compulsory redundancies for 144 workers, or will there simply be fewer reinstated?

Part of the deal, so the workers say, is that the 144 get a chance of an "appeal" to the company over compulsory redundancy. That seems to suggest that they might be reinstated, but it is not clear.

In the meantime, the locked-out workers are receiving just £200 per month from the union, and no Jobseeker's Allowance.

The reinstated workers, if and when they are reinstated, will go back on the same wages and conditions as before - but on the basis that Gate Gourmet plans to radically revise wages and conditions in January.

So, for the locked-out workers, nothing is resolved. They are still on the picket line, in large numbers. They still need support. They still need donations.

And the TGWU needs some plans for renewed action, to put pressure on GG to deliver.

The following are some of the measures which TGWU activists should be demanding from their officials:

1. Make the agreement available in writing to the workers (including in all necessary languages);

2. Tell the workers who is on the reinstatement list, and who on the compulsory redundancy list;

3. Demand from GG a definite date for reinstatement of the 187;

4. Resist any moves by GG to withdraw the reinstatements because some of the 144 refuse to sign;

5. Give regular reports to the workers on progress in finding alternative jobs for the 144;

6. In the interval before reinstatement, increase the lock-out pay from £200 a month to a more realistic level;

7. Have union officials visit the picket line regularly to hear workers' views and answer workers' questions.