‘WE are all very strong and standing firm in the wind and all weathers on our picket line on the hill and won’t give in,’ Gate Gourmet locked out worker Jasbir Gupta told News Line yesterday. ‘The whole union must fight for us,’ she continued.
The Gate Gourmet locked out workers are holding their monthly mass picket this Sunday from 11am to 1pm at the Beacon roundabout, Beacon Road, near Heathrow Terminal 4.
Jasbir added: ‘We want everyone to come and join us this Sunday and also to march with us through Hounslow on Saturday 25th March.’
Mrs Asha Varma said: ‘The company and the union leaders have colluded to try to stop us fighting for our rights. The union leaders and solicitors are talking the language of the bosses.
‘They say our employment tribunal cases may be thrown out of court and we would be better to sign the compromise agreement. But we know we are in the right. We were locked in the canteen and then locked out.
‘It is well documented that the company organised a pre-planned operation to bring in cheap labour and sack us. We are going to our employment tribunal, even though they are trying to put us off.’
Mrs Lakhinder Saran added: ‘The union leaders are still trying to scare people into signing the deal. The people who have signed the deal have received a hardship payment cheque but those who have not signed, haven’t. The union has done it the other way round from what they said in their letter of the 22nd December.’
Paramjit Brar said: ‘I received a letter from Gate Gourmet on 20th January saying that I am being made compulsorily redundant. Up until then, I thought they were offering me re-engagement. I am not accepting it, I am going to my tribunal.’
