LOCKED-OUT Gate Gourmet workers were campaigning yesterday for their mass picket next Sunday 22nd January between 11am and 1pm and their conference in London on Sunday 29th January.
Speaking on the picket line at Heathrow Airport yesterday Parmjit Bains told News Line: ‘We went to five local radio stations this morning.
‘They said that they will call us to arrange interviews with us about our dispute, our fight and help us to publicise our mass picket and conference.’
She added: ‘The company is inviting people who aren’t among the 144 compulsory redundancies to go in for interviews.
‘They are saying that if they were to be offered re-engagement they would have to follow the Survival Plan and sign the Compromise Agreement.
‘This would mean losing all the money we have lost over the past five months and accepting much, much worse conditions – less money, fewer workers and more work – slave labour.
‘At the end of these interviews the company is telling people that they will write to the union and the union will let them know the outcome, so the union is acting as the agent of the company.
‘That is why our fight is so important and our conference. The union leaders are telling people the dispute is over, how can they say that?
‘People are fighting for their rights and won’t give up. We’ve got the majority, just a few people have signed the compromise deal and the union leaders are behaving as if the dispute is finished.
‘We’ve got great support from the British Airways workers. They know that Woodley (TGWU General Secretary) has accepted compulsory redundancies at Gate Gourmet and will try to accept them at BA.
‘That’s why our fight is so important, we need leaders in our union who won’t betray principles but who will fight for their members.’
Locked out worker Satpal added: ‘We are very strong and we will stay strong, we are in the right and proud of ourselves, we call on everyone to come on our mass picket next Sunday and our conference the following Sunday.’
