T&G reaches deal with Gate Gourmet
The Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) and airline caterer Gate Gourmet have announced that they have reached a settlement after a row that has continued for nearly two months.
The details of the settlement are unclear, but it seems that the union and the catering company have reached a compromise on the controversial issue of the 200 “troublemakers” who Gate Gourmet refused to re-employ.
T&G and Gate Gourmet released a joint statement saying: “Both the company and the union are pleased that a way forward has been found and, if the agreement is ratified, both sides have committed to working together to rebuild trust and confidence after all the difficulties of recent weeks.”
The row began when staff at British Airways (BA), Gate Gourmet’s largest client, decided to strike in sympathy for 670 Gate Gourmet staff sacked in a supposed restructuring move.
Flights from Heathrow were grounded for two days and cost BA an estimated £40 million. About 100,000 passengers were left stranded by the wildcat industrial action.
Gate Gourmet offered all of its staff, including the dismissed workers, redundancy packages in a bid to end the dispute in August, but the controversy has rumbled on and has been a central issue at this year’s Labour party conference.
The catering company needed to reach an agreement with the T&G if it was going to be able to renew its contract with BA.
