THE capitalist press yesterday was full of revelations that the new BA boss, Willie Walsh, recruited after making savage cuts at Aer Lingus, is set to sack thousands of workers, beginning with the 500 baggage handlers and cargo loaders who recently took sympathy action in support of the 710 locked out Gate Gourmet workers.
BA is set to launch its ‘strategic plan’ within the next few weeks. The attitude of the TGWU union leaders to this development was to say yesterday, ‘no comment’.
A spokeswoman went on to say that there were discussions taking place with BA and that the union hoped that it and the BA management could jointly face up to the challenge that faced the company from sharply rising oil prices.
This is the same formula that the union leaders employed at the ex BA company, Gate Gourmet.
There, they also entered negotiations with the company on the basis of jointly facing, alongside the bosses, the challenges facing the company. They acted like Gate Gourmet’s personnel managers and not union leaders representing the interests of their members.
This stance resulted in the TGWU leaders completely supporting the management’s plan for over 300 redundancies, including 144 compulsory redundancies, and for a survival programme that includes an increase in pension contributions and a reduction in benefits, and having ‘multi-functional employees – employees who work flexibly across all jobs within their department, and within their process,’ and in ‘exceptional circumstances will be asked to work across the processes.’
The TGWU leaders Woodley and Gold, aided by the TUC general secretary Barber have given the Great Gourmet bosses everything that they wanted, and have completely betrayed the locked out workers.
Gate Gourmet has gushed its thanks to the union leaders for services rendered. It says on its website: ‘Gate Gourmet thanks Brendan Gold for agreeing to the proposals, and Brendan Barber for his unwavering support and assistance throughout the negotiation process.’
This betrayal has, no doubt, played a part in the decision of BA to begin making its own savage cuts.
It is banking on the TGWU leaders and the TUC general secretary Barber providing the same kind of service for BA, by delivering the same kind of betrayal of the workers.
There is not the slightest reason why BA workers should just hang around waiting for BA to start their war. BA workers must take the offensive. They must immediately take strike action in support of the locked out Gate Gourmet workers, who are continuing to picket the plant every day.
This is the only way to drive BA back, by forcing the TGWU to rip up the sell-out deal that it has helped to draw up with the Gate Gourmet bosses, and by winning the Gate Gourmet struggle.
This action will, as well, prepare the way for the rapid removal of the Woodley leadership of the TGWU and Brendan Barber as TUC general secretary, and for their replacement by new leaders who will fight for the real interests of the working class.
Woodley and Barber, after all, moved and supported the resolution carried unanimously at the TUC Congress that offered the Gate Gourmet locked out workers 100 per cent support. They then betrayed the Gate Gourmet workers and now they are getting ready to betray the BA workers.
We repeat – the way to stop these treacherous leaders and to win the Gate Gourmet dispute is to stop Heathrow Airport.
In this case, he who hesitates will be lost. If the alliance between the bosses and the trade union bureaucracy is successful at Gate Gourmet, the whole of Heathrow will not have to wait too long to feel the same treatment, as will every airport in the country.
Now is the time to fight. The airport must be stopped to win the Gate Gourmet struggle, and Woodley and Barber must be forced to resign.
