‘We are calling for the whole airport to come out, not just to support us but to defend themselves,’ Jaswinder Phal told News Line on the Gate Gourmet picket line at Heathrow Airport yesterday.
He added: ‘What Gate Gourmet has done every boss will do. We are just in the front line.’
The approximately 700 locked out TGWU members are angry with their union leaders.Parmjit Bains added: ‘We are not going to sign any compromise agreement with the company.
‘We are going to our employment tribunal for unfair dismissal and we are calling on the whole airport to come out to win our jobs back on the original terms and conditions.
‘At the meeting in Southall four weeks ago, the union leaders said they had reached an agreement with the company and everything would be settled within a week. But nothing is settled.
‘We have asked so many times to see the agreement but they won’t show it to us.
‘That means that the union leaders and the company are playing with us.
‘We have no more trust in our union leaders.
‘If they have things in their hands why are they not showing them to us?’
Picket Mrs Dalbir said: ‘It’s very nearly three months now since we were all locked out and we are all suffering.
‘I’ve got two children going to university and I have to help them.
‘We need to know where we stand. The company have a very bad attitude, they are heartless.
‘We have to pay one hundred and twenty seven pounds a month council tax – where do we get the money from?
‘We have to get this sorted out before it drags on any more.’
Jarnail Singh told News Line: ‘Under the proposed agreement, the company keeps control of everything. The union should keep control.’
Kirpal said: ‘At the meeting in Southall, the union leaders told us that everything was sorted and we just had to say yes.
‘But it’s four weeks now and they haven’t done anything.
‘So what are they going to do within the next two weeks?
‘Anyway, this agreement is not right, they should not have compulsory redundancies.
‘They should not be allowed to pick and choose who they have back.
‘The union leaders said at the meeting that they wanted us all to agree to the company’s survival plan, which means worse conditions.’
