BY CAROLINE BELLAMY
LONDON - At a mass meeting on November 21, 400 workers
employed by LSG Lufthansa Skychefs voted unanimously to reject
company conditions for their reemployment, effectively deciding
on all-out strike action. The day before, the company issued
dismissal letters, firing members of the Transport and General
Workers Union at the plant who had taken part in a 24-hour
stoppage.
Brian Powell, a worker in the Wash Up area who moved the resolution that was adopted, said to enthusiastic applause: "No individual should sign any management letters offering reinstatement. What we want is a union-negotiated settlement. We should all stay out until we're all taken back on agreed terms."
There were cheers when the vote was taken. Many of the workers are Asian. The mass meeting was conducted in English and Punjabi.
The strikers then turned to organizing the walkout. They're picketing around the clock and are establishing a strike headquarters. Union officials pledged to contact trade unions at other airports and in other countries for support, and to raise the strike with Members of Parliament.
One of the pickets, Javid Upaday, said that the workers were prepared for a long battle. "No doubt we'll be preparing turkeys for a Christmas picket," he stated. Even on the first day of action, the workers had organized two braziers to keep them warm and to use as cooking facilities. As cars passed by the 50 or so pickets, many hooted their horns in support. The president of the local Sikh temple came to the line to offer support.
There was a marked cop presence at the picket. The police insisted the strikers stick to the legal limit of six pickets at the gate and erected crowd-control barriers to hem in the unionists. Many had to stand across the road from the factory. Pickets also reported that special security patrols with German shepherd dogs had been organized.
The issues behind the strike concern new work practices, "single operated catering," introduced by the company for those on the transport team who take the prepared food and drink from the factory to the airport, and load it onto the planes. The union responded with a demand for 1.50 per hour raise and that there should be no compulsory redundancies (1 = US$1.65). The company offered 0.40 per hour instead. But, in fact, following the introduction of new rosters, the Transport Team received a wage cut by as much as 70 or 100 per week.
The union also demanded a raise for other workers, rejecting what everyone perceived as a divide-and-rule policy of the company that was seeking a special deal with the drivers. The company responded by offering all workers, including the drivers, a 0.12 per hour rise.
An initial move to strike action had been aborted when the company alleged that the procedures adopted were outside of the legal framework established by the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. This includes a postal ballot sent to all workers to be involved in a strike and the provision of seven days notice of action.
When the union made a second attempt to organize strike action, the workers recorded a vote of more than 70 percent in favor of a walkout. The necessary notice was given and the day of strike action was set for November 20. When they went out on strike, workers were sacked for breach of contract. The company representatives called workers who were sick at home to ask if they would have walked out had they not been ill. Those who answered "yes" were told that they were fired too.
The company offered as a condition of reemployment that each worker sign a letter agreeing to the 0.12 per hour raise and that they would not press any other issues in dispute. Most workers were offered an immediate return to work if they signed. A minority, including a number of union stewards and workers identified as more militant, were informed that they would not be reemployed until February 1999.
"This is clearly an attempt to break our union," Upaday said. "It's no longer an issue of money. We're out for respect, dignity, and union rights."
Caroline Bellamy is a member of the Transport and General Workers Union in London.