BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN
LONDON - "We're going to keep the pressure on now 'till we
win, we are not going to stop campaigning," reported Skychefs
union leader Adesh Farmahan, after strikers here relaunched
their efforts to win back their jobs and union rights. Some
270 airline catering workers were fired by Lufthansa LSG
Skychefs after a one-day strike on Nov. 20, 1998.
Javed Upaday, another strike leader, reported talks that had taken place with Lufthansa during June and July had collapsed. "They offered just six jobs to strikers," he said. "They were going through the motions and had no intention of settling." Lufthansa, Upaday said, was "under pressure to appear to do something" as a result of the strikers' mobilization, including a 300-strong rally May 3 outside the plant gates in support of their fight.
The Skychefs workers also defeated an attempt by the cops to prosecute Parmjit Bajwa on two charges of threatening behavior and common assault arising out of a picket line incident with a scab. About 30 strikers and a couple of supporters packed out the courthouse when Bajwa's case came up May 13. Bajwa was found not guilty.
After the talks collapsed, more than 200 strikers met July 18 to relaunch their efforts. "The first thing we decided was to strengthen the picket," said Farmahan. The strikers have sustained a 24-hour picket, seven days a week, outside the catering plant at Heathrow airport since the start of their fight, but numbers attending had declined. There are now 130 people on the picket roster, 80 women and 50 men. They are joined by other strikers who have gotten jobs. Nearly half of the strikers are working in other jobs, mainly at the airport. The workers decided to channel the bulk of their strike pay to full-time strikers, while seeking to organize others into regular picket duty. When Militant reporters visited the picket line following the meeting, it was clear morale was up.
Sixty strikers launched a boycott campaign against Lufthansa in a press conference July 21 outside the offices of the Trades Union Congress. TUC leader John Monks and Transport and General Workers Union general secretary Bill Morris took part in the event. Since then, Farmahan said, "Every day up to 20 strikers have been picketing Lufthansa's offices in central London as well as at Heathrow."
Lufthansa reacted by claiming they did not own the London- based firm. "Four months ago, they even repainted the catering delivery trucks removing Lufthansa from them so they just read LSG Skychefs," Farmahan said. Within days of the launch of the boycott campaign, Lufthansa agreed again to talks, which he said "just shows they are lying" about their connection to the London operation. This time, though, there will be no easing up of the strikers' campaign, he says.
The unionists' efforts were also boosted by a meeting of more than 100 union representatives from different airlines at Heathrow July 21. Workers at Aer Lingus are facing attempts to impose new conditions on them arising out of Aer Lingus selling its London-based operation to Swissair. Since the meeting strikers on the Skychefs picket line report that union delegations from British Airways and Aer Lingus have been down to express their support. A delegation of TGWU members from GlaxoWellcome in Dartford also visited the picket line to bring money raised in a factory collection held to mark the eight-month anniversary of the strike.
Jonathan Silberman is member of the TGWU in London.