BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN AND TIM OWEN
LONDON - "Don't be quiet - fight for your rights!"
"Victory to Skychefs strikers!" and "Union rights - human
rights!" shouted 600 demonstrators marching through Southall
in west London February 20. The march had been called by the
Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) in support of the
fight by the strikers at Lufthansa Skychefs in defense of
union rights. The strike started three months ago on November
20 when the 400 airline catering workers were sacked for
holding a 24-hour work stoppage.
Strike leader Garth King addressed a rally at the end of the march. Appealing to people to deepen their support for the strike, King said, "This march is not only for us. Our fight for union rights today could be yours tomorrow. We went out together, and we'll go back together." King encouraged everyone to build a rally at the picket March 6.
Other speakers at the march included TGWU general secretary Bill Morris, who pledged support for the strikers, and Trades Union Congress leader John Monks.
"Three months is quite a long time on strike," said Usha Kaur, one of the strikers leading the chants, "but we are confident that we will win." Kaur, one of the women who have constituted the backbone of the pickets, added, "We get tremendous inspiration from the Hillingdon Hospital strikers who have been on strike for four years. It shows what we can do."
A contingent of Hillingdon strikers participated in the march. An industrial tribunal has ruled in favor of their reinstatement but the company refuses to reinstate them.
Other groups of workers involved in struggle were also on the march. Thirty workers from AP Moller Rosti, a technical plastics factory in Wembley, north London, who are involved in a union organizing drive, marched behind their union banner. Three of the Rosti workers spearheading the unionization drive just won reinstatement after being sacked three weeks ago. One of them, Manjit Singh Sahota, said that workers in the plant face wages, as low as L 3.66 (US$5.97) per hour, bullying, harassment, and poor health and safety. "We also face race discrimination. Eighty percent of the workers are Asian or African, but all the supervisors are white." Sahota added, "A victory for the union at Skychefs would be a victory for us all."
Small contingents of London Underground (subway) workers and University College Hospital staff, both of whom had been on strike during the week leading up to the demonstration, were also on the march.
The dispute at Skychefs is becoming a focus for broader layers of workers. "It's good to be able to come on a march like this, which involves different groups of workers and unions in support of a strike," said Adrian Coady, one of a group of TGWU members at Aer Lingus to join the march. Workers at Aer Lingus, KLM, and British Airways at Heathrow have visited the Skychefs picket line and made financial contributions.
Other marchers carried union banners from TGWU Region 6 in the northwest part of the country, and a number of branches from the union's Region 1 in London and the southeast including Housing Workers, Kodak workers, public service workers, cab drivers, and workers from plants in Kent.
"I'm here because I know what it means to live in poverty," said Mike Ward, a farm worker from Norfolk who had traveled 100 miles to attend the demonstration. "What the Skychefs workers earn a week is atrocious." Ward carried a banner of the Transport and General Workers Agricultural and Allied Workers Trade Group. Also participating in the action were farm workers from Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
Leading up to the demonstration, strikers had taken steps to extend their outreach work. Three hundred people attended a rally at the factory gate February 1. Teams of strikers have traveled with union officials to the United States and Germany in an effort to exert pressure on the multinational company, the biggest airline catering company in the world. Following the demonstration, King is traveling to Spain to meet up with unions at Skychefs in Madrid where the workers have already taken some solidarity action.
Strikers have also visited the London Underground picket and attended other union meetings. Adesh Farmahan, Sid Sidhu, and Gurmel Singh attended the TGWU 1/1806 branch before the march. The branch voted to make a L 1,000 donation to the strike fund, regular L 200 monthly contributions to the hardship fund, and to organize a workplace collection at Glaxo Wellcome.
Asked how the strikers would win their fight, Farmahan said, "Unity is key. Unity of the strikers and other workers, especially at Heathrow Airport. Our goal is reinstatement with our union. But if we can't win this, we're prepared to stay out as long as it takes to close the company down."
Tim Owen and Jonathan Silberman are members of the TGWU 1/1806 branch.