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Uniting Food, Farm and Hotel Workers World-Wide


Gate Gourmet: Reinstate Sacked Workers Now!

Posted to the IUF website 17-Aug-2005

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On Wednesday, August 10, airline caterer Gate Gourmet sacked some 800 workers at London-Heathrow Airport in an extraordinary show of corporate aggression against a union and against a workforce which the company have said they "cannot work with" (see News story).

Talks began over the weekend between the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) and Gate Gourmet, with the assistance of a mediator. So far the talks have not produced satisfactory results as Gate Gourmet is insisting on picking and choosing which workers will be eligible for reinstatement and making it clear that they want to rid themselves of staff they consider to be "troublemakers".The T&G is seeking the immediate reinstatement of all the sacked workers.


Gate Gourmet workers, family members and union activists hold regular rallies and have received excellent support from the local community.


On Monday, the London newspaper, the Daily Mirror, revealed the existence of a plan drawn up by Gate Gourmet's owners, the Texas Pacific Group, to provoke workers into taking "unofficial industrial action" so the company could dismiss them and avoid costly redundancy packages. While Gate Gourmet UK management does not deny the existence of such a plan, they contend that it was not implemented and that they had no intention of doing so. According to the newspaper report, the plan also involved replacing the sacked workers with cheaper labour from agencies specialising in recruiting workers from Eastern Europe. The full text of the article, available on the website of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), provides the particulars of this corporate conspiracy to sack staff and smash the union in shocking detail.

The Heathrow Gate Gourmet workers have appealed through their union, the T&G, and the IUF and the ITF for help.

What you can do


To send a message to Gate Gourmet management expressing your condemnation of the company's unacceptable treatment of its employees and the confrontational tactics being used and calling on the company to reinstate the sacked workers and negotiate in good faith with the T&G, click on LabourStart Act Now!

Your message will be sent to the following recipients:
Eric Born, Managing Director, Gate Gourmet UK
Paul Lilley, President, Division Europe
David Siegel, Chairman and CEO

Copies will be sent to the T&G, the ITF and the IUF.

We thank you in advance for your solidarity and support!