Not over yet at Gate Gourmet
WORKERS, NOV 2005 ISSUE
After sacking 700 staff by megaphone, US-owned catering company Gate Gourmet came to an agreement with the Transport and General Workers Union at the end of September, endorsed by the stewards and accepted by the majority of members at the company. Tony Woodley, the T&G General Secretary, announced that the "great majority of our members" would either go back to work or take voluntary redundancy.
The figures involved are that 187 should have their jobs back, 210 could have voluntary redundancy, and the company also wants 144 compulsory redundancies – which include those they have termed "trouble makers" (read union activists). It was hoped that these would get representation at a fair appeals procedure and receive compensation. The union says its members would have been made redundant without compensation had it not been for the dispute. As yet the company has not made available any names of people who got their jobs back, or received redundancy pay.
The settlement depends on Gate Gourmet and British Airways agreeing on a five-year extension of the catering contract. But more than two weeks later the union was expressing concern that the companies were delaying resolution. Brendan Gold, the union's national secretary for civil aviation, said that though members had acted in good faith, the delays were causing "a mounting degree of frustration amongst our people". This was evidenced by the mass rally at Beacon Hill on 23 October.
Gate Gourmet has said it will not sign the new contract with BA until all the union members agree to the September deal. They blame the union for not gaining this support, and for supporting what they term an illegal wildcat strike in the first place. The caterers are owned by Texas Pacific Group, which is pushing it to produce better results for their shareholders. TPG had a plan in place to provoke a strike, then to sack the work force and fly in scab labour from outside Britain. The T&G had accused Gate Gourmet of a "cynical plot to get rid of their [unionised] workforce."
Within little over a week of the Heathrow agreement Gate Gourmet was involved in a new dispute in Germany, at Düsseldorf airport. Negotiations over the collective agreement between the company and the German food and restaurant union had been started in August. The German union asked for 4.5% pay increase. Company negotiators demanded concessions on holidays, working hours, and shift allowances. Gate Gourmet threatened redundancies, whereupon 90 workers went out on strike and put up a picket line.