The lockout began after union members at this airline catering firm held a one-day strike to protest changes in work practices and pay. Upaday reported that by early April most strikers had signed a national compensation settlement with the company that was recommended by the union officials, and that as of April 20 the officials had ended their action. " We didn't get everything, but it was time to call it a day," he said.

"Lufthansa learned a bitter lesson. They were forced to make the settlement," Upaday declared. "They thought their problem had gone away when they sacked us. At the beginning they even claimed there was no dispute, but their problem was we never went away."

The strikers, who in their majority are originally from India, sustained a determined fight, including 24-hour pickets till the end. "It cost Lufthansa too," Upaday stated. "In all this time they got no new contracts with the airlines. This sends a message to other companies at Heathrow."

He said the company came forward with this package after strikers had launched pickets at the London offices of the airlines they service. "That, along with the rallies we held, had an impact." Last year several hundred strikers and supporters attended mass picket lines and rallies at the plant gates on May 3 and November 20, and 600 marched through nearby Southall on Feb. 20, 1999.

The settlement gives all former strikers £400 for each year worked with the company, and a flat amount of £7,500 for the 114 who stayed on strike without getting other work. Up to 60 strikers who had filed a legal claim for wrongful dismissal because they were either sick or not rostered to work the day of the original strike are to get up to £3,000 for not pursuing court action. The total payout came to £2 million.

Many strikers remain dissatisfied with the deal, although they signed up feeling they were offered no alternative. Some 30 strikers have yet to sign. One of these, Jaswinder Pal, said, "We have not achieved our goal of getting the jobs back, and there's no proper compensation." He added, "We should have pursued the tribunals."

Nonetheless, Upaday said the workers made some achievements. "Because we stuck together through the strike, we are now more union-minded, we know a bit about fighting," he said.

Jaswinder Pal remarked, "Before the strike I was interested in doing things, but never went to marches. Now I've been on May Day marches and to the Rover workers march." On May 1, 1999, some 60 Skychef strikers led a 3,000-strong union march through London. On April 1 nine of the strikers joined a march of 80,000 against job cuts at the Rover car plant in Birmingham.

Meanwhile, union action has developed at other airline catering firms at Heathrow. Drivers and loaders organized by the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) at the airport's largest catering company, Gate Gourmet, organized a "work to rule" in March to protest a derisory pay offer. The action was ended by a union mass meeting after the company agreed to a substantial increase. And at International Catering, where the company currently does not recognize the union, workers responded to a similar low-pay offer with a union protest rally in late April.

Pete Clifford is a member of the Transport and General Workers' Union.  
 
 
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