THIRTY FIVE Gate Gourmet locked out workers yesterday lobbied the TGWU executive meeting at the union’s headquarters in Holborn.
They kept up chants of ‘Compromise Agreement no way’, ‘Woodley shame shame’, and ‘We want our jobs back.’
They told arriving delegates that they wanted their dispute to be made official, to be paid official dispute pay, and that the hardship fund should be used for distress cases.
They were angry that officials had told them that the hardship fund was going to be closed.
The locked out workers told executive member Jill Greening from South West Region that they wanted the Compromise Agreement ended, and everybody to be returned to their jobs.
She said: ‘Tony Woodley told us yesterday that he is looking into concerns about the situation with you at Gate Gourmet and he is reporting back to us today.’
She added: ‘You can’t say that the dispute is over if the picket is continuing. I am very concerned.’
Adrian Ross from Longbridge Birmingham said: ‘If the picket is still going on it seems that the Compromise Agreement is falling apart. I want to know more.’
One of the delegates who stopped to speak to the locked out workers was Iggy Vaid, one of the British Airways shop stewards suspended after the sympathy strike by BA baggage handlers, checking staff and drivers.
He told them: ‘I said to Tony Woodley yesterday how can you tell the press that the dispute is over when no single person is working?
‘They can’t stop the hardship money. The dispute is not finished.
‘I promise I will raise what you are telling me. I’m very concerned about this.’
Mohammed Taj, Region 8 Yorks and Humberside said: ‘90 per cent have not signed up. That’s nowhere near a deal. I am very much appalled and genuinely feel for these members.
‘I will raise these questions at today’s meeting.
‘What I have seen today shows that the dispute is far from over. I understand that the Compromise Agreement is not acceptable, and your shop stewards and union leaders are misleading you.’
NEC member Tom Cashman had a long discussion with some of the locked out workers and admitted that he would not have signed the Compromise Agreement.
