Workers Revolutionary Party - GREENFORD BUS WORKERS TO JOIN MASS PICKET

The News Line: News Saturday, 25 February 2006 GREENFORD BUS WORKERS TO JOIN MASS PICKET

Gate Gourmet locked-out workers at their last mass picket at Heathrow, supported by Hounslow UNISON members

GATE Gourmet locked-out workers are holding their monthly mass picket at the Beacon Roundabout, Beacon Road, near Heathrow Airport, Terminal Four from 11am to 1pm this Sunday.

A delegation of the locked out workers got a great reception at Greenford Bus Garage yesterday.

TGWU member GS Gill said: ‘I will definitely be there on Sunday. I’ve been a member of the union since 1968 and Woodley (TGWU General Secretary) is rubbish.

‘We haven’t had a pay rise for over a year. The union must stand up for its members.

‘I will ask our branch to put forward a demand that the union restores its hardship payments to the locked-out Gate Gourmet workers. It is a disgrace that it has been stopped.’

TGWU Branch Secretary, Abdul Chughti added: ‘I will definitely come on Sunday.’

TGWU member SS Randawa said: ‘These members must be supported. They have been attacked by a ruthless employer and the union must stand by them. I’ll be there on Sunday.’

Locked-out Gate Gourmet worker Mrs Mohinder Virk was one of the workers who visited the striking Gate Gourmet workers in Germany on Wednesday.

She told News Line: ‘There are eighty Gate Gourmet workers on strike in Germany, mostly women. The company is trying to cut wages and conditions just like here in England.

‘They have been on official strike for four months. They are picketing 24 hours, day and night. The company wants them to do flexible time, meaning ten hour shifts with no overtime rates.

‘They were very shocked that the TGWU leaders have stopped paying us our hardship pay. We told them we are not scared. We are fighting and we are going to win. They said they would bring a bus load to our march in Hounslow on the 25th of March.

‘They were so kind and friendly, we will give them a great welcome when they come.’