Workers Revolutionary Party - ‘JOIN OUR MASS PICKET THIS SUNDAY’

The News Line: News Friday, 24 February 2006 ‘JOIN OUR MASS PICKET THIS SUNDAY’

Two Gate Gourmet locked-out workers from London’s Heathrow airport were given a warm reception at Dusseldorf airport on Wednesday when they visited striking local Gate Gourmet workers

GATE Gourmet locked-out workers are calling on all their supporters to join them at their monthly mass picket on the hill at the Beacon Roundabout, Beacon Road, near Heathrow Airport Terminal Four this Sunday from 11am to 1pm.

They spoke enthusiastically yesterday about their intervention at the TUC General Council in central London and their visit to striking Gate Gourmet workers in Germany, both on Wednesday.

Mrs Satpal Sagoo said: ‘We are very pleased about yesterday and are looking forward to our mass picket on Sunday. The TGWU leaders have stopped our hardship money and think that they can just abandon us. We need people to show that we have support. This is an important fight, unions have to support their members in struggle.’

Mrs Lakhinder Saran said: ‘I have had another call from the union solicitor inviting me to a meeting at the TGWU Regional Office in Hillingdon on Monday afternoon.

‘I think they are going to tell me again that I should sign the Compromise Agreement, I will go to the meeting and hear what they have to say but I will never sign the compromise deal and neither will my friends.

‘It takes away all our rights, we want the whole trade union to stand by us and tell the leaders that what they have done is wrong. We are fighting on for reinstatement and compensation for all the money we have lost.’

Mrs Jasbir Gupta said: ‘It was very good at the TUC yesterday and we are so pleased that our two ladies got such a good reception from the striking Gate Gourmet workers in Germany.

‘It just shows that this company is trying to bring in cheap labour everywhere. We told the TUC delegates that they had to support us like they said they would.

‘They voted unanimously at the TUC Conference in Brighton in September to give us all their support, now we need them to show it.’