Roger Dillon, part of a delegation of workers from Ford Dagenham Motor Works, brought a donation of £1,000 (US$1,796) from their union, the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU), and said they planned to do a bucket collection in the factory. “If they are allowed to get away with this, other companies will be looking to do the same. That’s why we came to give support,” stated Dillon.

Brendan Gold, the TGWU’s national secretary for civil aviation, informed the crowd that the union would send a delegation to the United States to talk to workers at Gate Gourmet facilities there, which are organized by the UNITE-HERE and Teamster unions.

Some 800 catering workers were fired August 10 when 200 of them walked off the job to hold a union meeting. In response, 1,000 baggage handlers and other workers at British Airways held a sympathy strike for more than 24 hours, grounding all of the airline’s Heathrow flights, affecting 70,000 passengers.

Gate Gourmet and the TGWU agreed August 25 on the outline of an agreement that offered the sacked workers voluntary redundancy (layoff) with a compensation payment. The voluntary unemployment, however, could be followed by compulsory redundancies.

Gate Gourmet boss David Siegel warned, “The hardliners and militants are never coming back.”

Jagjeet Bhamra, who has worked at Gate Gourmet for six years and whose wife has worked there nine years, expressed the opinion of many workers interviewed by the Militant when he said, “When we are all back at work, then the union can have further discussions on redundancies and compensation.” He added, “Who are the troublemakers? We are all ‘troublemakers’—they are trying to break the union.”  
 
 
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