Gate Gourmet Workers' Strike at Heathrow Ruled Illegal

A British employment tribunal ruled last month that the strike by Gate Gourmet airline catering workers at Heathrow airport in August 2005 was illegal.

The tribunal in Reading in the case of Abbas and others versus Gate Gourmet London Ltd found that the 100 or more workers claiming unfair dismissal had no redress because their union had not authorized the strike and it was their own choice not to return to work.

The dispute began on August 10, 2005, when the company summarily sacked more than 800 workers at its Heathrow factory and imposed a lockout, replacing them with eastern European agency workers it had organized as strike-breakers. In response to the lockout, some 1,000 British Airways (BA) workers staged unofficial strike action, paralyzing flights for 48 hours. [Get full story ¦ wsws.org]