‘VICTORY is close now,’ locked-out Gate Gourmet worker Parmjit Bains told a meeting of more than 200 trade unionists and youth on Sunday in Southall.
The meeting was called to support the 15-month-long struggle of the Gate Gourmet workers, sacked by megaphone in August 2005.
The meeting, on the eve of the workers’ initial Employment Tribunal hearing, was attended by busworkers in the TGWU, postal workers from west London, civil servants, health workers, students and many other supporters.
The workers are demanding: ‘Defeat Gate Gourmet and all slave labour bosses!’, ‘TGWU – make our dispute official and pay our hardship pay!’
Parmjit told the meeting: ‘We’ve been fighting for more than one year and we are coming close to victory.
‘Our hearing starts next week and we are very, very confident.
‘We are fighting for our rights. We are not demanding anything else.
‘We are very very confident we will win our fight because all workers are with us.
‘In front of the power of labour, no one can stand. Thank you all of you who are giving us support.
‘Victory is close now, we will show the whole working class – don’t give away your rights to any management or any union leaders.’
Harbinder Singh said: ‘I am a Gate Gourmet ex-shop steward.
‘We worked hard for Gate Gourmet. We got a five-year-long service record, but still they said we are “troublemakers’’.
‘We have the right to speak for our rights,’ he insisted.
‘Since August 2005, we’ve been struggling and now we’re looking for our tribunal to get our rights back.
‘We hope to win our case and we hope you will continue to support our case until that day.’
Ex-Hillingdon Hospital strike leader Malkiat Bilku said to the locked-out workers: ‘We salute you. You have struggled for these long 15 months and you are now going to the Employment Tribunal, like we did.
‘These are very proud ladies from the Hillingdon strike here today. They are here to support you.
‘All trade unionists, ordinary workers, will support you.’
She added: ‘We beat Pall Mall slave labour bosses and these bosses are the same. We beat Granada as well.
‘We are looking to you to win.
‘I stood against our own union leader in UNISON and I had 32,000 votes. You will do the same.
‘You are fighting for the whole working class and for the future of all working people.’
MP John McDonnell, who is going to challenge Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership, addressed the meeting.
He said: ‘If people are being subjugated in that way, thrown out of their employment, deprived of their income, it is the right thing to support their struggle for justice.’
He continued: ‘I wish these workers now going to the Employment Tribunal every success possible.’
But he added that ‘unless there is a dramatic transformation of the law in this country, there’ll be more Gate Gourmets’.
He said that after nine years of a Labour government, ‘We now have less trade union rights in this country than we did a hundred years ago in 1906.’
He went on: ‘I’m working on the drafting of a Trade Union Freedom Bill.
‘It has the support of 187 MPs, but not a single Labour Cabinet minister has expressed support for the legislation, which would only bring Britain up to the standards of other European countries.
‘That’s why I’m standing against Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership.
‘I’ll continue to support you throughout and to campaign against Gordon Brown to restore trade union rights. Solidarity.’
Richard Kassir, Southall and Harrow CWU, told the meeting that he had been checking the figures and found that 800 workers had been sacked, ‘not the 400 that Gate Gourmet would have you believe’.
He said that on closer examination of Tony Woodley’s speech at this year’s TUC Congress, defending his efforts to sell out the Gate Gourmet workers, Woodley’s argument ‘completely falls to pieces’.
He concluded: ‘They call you “troublemakers” – I’d like to think we’ve got a room of “troublemakers” here. So good luck to you.’
Ex-Hounslow Council leader Colin Ellar, who has lent his support to the locked-out workers, said because of the government’s policies Labour lost control of all the local authorities in west London at the last elections.
‘It is a sad time for you, you’ve been thrown out of employment and suffered this injustice. I’m also unemployed!
‘I understand the unfairness of your position. Why should people be thrown out of their jobs and mistreated like that in Britain today.’
Hengride Permal, from Chagos Islanders Community Association in Crawley, said: ‘I’m very glad to be here today. I’ve been reading about your struggle and I really sympathise.
‘We are fighting the same fight. My community have been struggling since 1965.
‘There were 2,000 on my island. We were thrown off, put on a boat and sent to Mauritius.
‘We have been fighting the British government.
‘We are still struggling in poverty and we don’t have any support from anybody.
‘You have suffered a lot too, the same as us. You have to know in your hearts that you are winners already.
‘We don’t want only sympathy, we want action to be taken, that’s what we want.
‘Keep going to get what you want, the same like us.’
Niaz Faiz, from the PCS civil service union at Defra (the rural affairs department), spoke in a personal capacity.
He said the members of his union were facing compulsory redundancies and pledged that he would raise as much money as possible to support the locked-out workers, who have had their hardship money stopped by the TGWU leaders.
‘Your fight is our fight,’ he said.
Nash Campbell, national secretary of the Young Socialists, said: ‘On behalf of all YS members we support the Gate Gourmet locked-out workers.
‘We have been supporting you from the beginning and admire your struggle. Your determination is strong.
‘It’s a struggle for future generations’ jobs and to see these unions destroy your jobs like this is ridiculous.
‘We will be supporting you to the end.’
Paul Brown, TGWU shop steward at Hounslow Bus Garage, said: ‘Our branch is in solidarity with you.
‘Gate Gourmet will go down in history in the labour movement.
‘I wish you all the best in the world.
‘There is a movement in the TGWU. The union is going to merge with Amicus. There’s going to be big changes.’
Sheila Torrance, from the News Line, paid tribute to the determination of the locked-out workers who were inspiring the whole working class.
‘All those who say the dispute is over, like the leaders in the TGWU, are absolutely wrong,’ she told the meeting.
‘All over the world now you’ve got employers trying to use cheap labour and bring in slave labour.
‘But people don’t want to see cheap labour and the end of trade unionism.’
She said the dispute was deliberately provoked by the company, not a strike by the workers.
She reminded the audience: ‘It started off on August 10 last year. Even “The Mirror’’ declared it was planned six months before.
‘There were hundreds of casual workers waiting to do their jobs.
‘Management actually told Gate Gourmet workers to go into the canteen and discuss it.
‘People were physically locked in, like slaves.
‘They sacked the ones on the afternoon shift who hadn’t even got to work – one man was in India and they sacked him!’
She said ‘well done’ to the baggage workers at Heathrow who walked out in solidarity when the workers were locked out last year.
She told the Gate Gourmet workers if the Heathrow walk-out had carried on ‘you would have won and beaten Gate Gourmet.
‘But the TGWU leaders were frightened and got them back to work and got two stewards sacked as a result.
‘They got frightened and there was nothing to be frightened of!’
She said the great thing about the locked-out workers’ struggle is that ‘it shows the strength of the working class.
‘And the struggle’s not over,’ she continued.
‘They thought they could get people to sign the Compromise Agreement: the worst plan ever to come up in the trade union movement – it stinks.
‘You were asked to sign away all your union rights.
‘One hundred and forty-four of you were to be sacked and the employers and the unions chose who they were going to be!
‘But on December 16 last year they had to acknowledge that only 200 out of 800 had signed the Compromise Agreement. It was an enormous blow that enraged the union officials and leadership.
‘They paid hardship money right up to that point and then it was suddenly stopped.
‘These cases are now going to a hearing. That’s going to be crucial.
‘It’s a huge blow against Gate Gourmet.’
Torrance said the workers would win because of ‘enormous public opinion and the strength of the working class.
‘You’re going to win for everybody and you’re going to beat these hated employers like Gate Gourmet who get billions from the banks to break up people’s lives, homes and families and they’ve got to be stopped doing it.’
There was a collection to support the locked-out workers that raised over £300 from the meeting.
Also, speaking from the floor, former Grunwicks striker Joseph Xavier said: ‘We Indians have struggled from the 1970s onwards.
‘We supported the Labour Party, we built it up and we built up the trade unions – and the economy of this country as well – and now we’re being pushed to one side,’ he said.
