The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.1           January 11, 1999 
 
 
`We're Going To Win,' Say Skychef Pickets In Britain  

BY CAROLINE BELLAMY
LONDON - Thirty days after being sacked for a one-day strike, workers at the Skychef catering company at Heathrow airport are still standing firm. "We're going to win it and that's the end of the story," said G.S. Mann, a driver, speaking at the 24-hour picket outside the factory.

"They are trying to break the union," said R. Tailor, who worked in the stores. "They want it so they can manipulate us and only employ the people they want, the crawlers. If you speak up you'll be out. Without the union, what's the point? When they sacked us it was a shock. We only came out for 24 hours and some of us have worked here for a long time." Some pickets have more than 20 years employment at the company.

On the day of the strike, workers were delivered letters telling them they were fired. Those on sick leave were phoned up and asked if they would have gone on strike had they been at work. If they said yes, they too were sacked. Workers are angered by this harassment, and many say that it contributed to the death of one man who was off sick with a bad back. Jaspal Singh Virdee, 48, died of a brain hemorrhage after receiving the news of his dismissal. Skychef has now sent letters to those who were on sick leave telling them that they can come back to work.

"This is all part of their dirty tricks," said Surinder Kaur, who works in the American Airlines section. "They are trying to divide us up." She reported that the picket line has been effective. "Some people went back to work, but they came out again after one night saying that they didn't want to be in there when their friends were outside on the picket."

The original one-day strike, the first of a projected series of four, was over broken promises by Skychef to compensate workers for big changes in working practices. Drivers who deliver and load the food trolleys to the planes were doing so alone. Previously a minimum of two workers delivered a load. Kaur said that in her section, the company had been imposing shift changes for two years, making workers do three rotating shifts as opposed to the fixed shifts they had worked before. "We never see our families," she commented.

Workers at other parts of the airport are supporting the strikers. There are 30,000 members of the Transport and General Workers union at Heathrow, including the Skychef strikers. Union representatives from all over the airport will be meeting December 22 to discuss the strike. This follows a December 4 meeting at which they pledged their support.

A ramp worker at one of the airlines at Heathrow, who asked that his name not be reported for fear of company discipline, said, "This is an issue for all the workers in the airport. People are increasingly thinking that if they defeat the union at Skychef, they'll try and do the same in other parts of the airport."

British Airways workers have contributed L 2,000 ( L 1=US$1.67) to the strike fund, and many airport workers have visited the picket line.

Financial support has been coming in from other workers. Electricians on the Jubilee Line Extension project, who recently won a two-week strike over health and safety and victimization, sent in L 1,500. The hardship fund now stands at over L 25,000.

The strike and picket are having an effect on Skychef. Workers report that the company has lost two contracts already and may well lose a third. Timothy Otteridge, the general manager, has been on local radio saying that the strike has cost the company L 1.5 million. No meals are being produced in the factory, the scabs are just packing food prepared elsewhere onto trays. Air France and Iberia are back-catering some flights, loading flights with food for the return journey at the airport of departure. Strikers have heard that workers at Iberia in Madrid refused to do this for one day, and the food had to be sourced from another company.

While Militant reporters were at the picket line, the police came over and told pickets not to shout at mothers and children who were leaving a company Christmas party put on for the scabs. "They say don't shout at children, but what about our children?" said Hardip Duhra.

Kaur reported that the company is allowing scabs to take their children into work, but that the police will not allow strikers' children on the picket line. "But my children, aged 11 and 13, are proud of me," she said. "They say, `You're great, Ma, you can walk with your head up because you stand up for your rights.' "

 
 
 
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