Heathrow

The workers will will not book on for shifts that commence between a minute after midnight and 23:59 on Thursday. Similar action is also scheduled for the following Monday, September 25th.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today:

Workers have rejected Laing's offer of 67p/hour bonuses, demanding the £1 awarded to other workers on the site some time ago.

An overtime ban has been in force since 28th January. This is the most recent of a series of strikes at Terminal 5, and will be a joint action by members of the GMB, TGWU and UCATT unions.

BACKGROUND
* Heathrow building workers set to strike again

On Tuesday, employers Laing O'Rourke offered scaffolders and labourers an extra 67p an hour in bonus pay - short of union members' call for £1 an hour.

But GMB and Transport and General Workers' Union said until members are balloted, the strike will take place.

Hundreds are expected to walk out on Friday and Monday for the second time.

The GMB stated:

The Daily Telegraph reported the move, which follows the dismissal of another employee on the same grounds last month. BA said the pair had been 'found guilty of gross misconduct for playing leading roles in orchestrating unballotted and illegal industrial action,' according to the Telegraph.

Picket lines were set up at Terminal 5 (T5) from before dawn as workers from three unions took action over bonus payments.

“More than 900 people have stopped work today,” said Steve Kelly, construction branch secretary of the GMB union, who was on a picket line.

Nearly 1,000 workers building a £4. 2bn terminal at Heathrow airport went on a 24-hour strike today (16 Dec ). Picket lines were set up at Terminal 5 (T5) from before dawn as workers from three unions took action over bonus payments.

“More than 900 people have stopped work today,” said Steve Kelly, construction branch secretary of the GMB union, who was on a picket line.

The first strike days have been confirmed as starting at 6.45am on Friday 16th and ending 6.45am on Tuesday 20th December, an overtime ban will start at the same time, and further strikes are planned between the 20th and 23rd of January. The dispute is primarily over a £1/hour increase on bonuses which other contractors on site have agreed to.

BAA publicly announced 700 redundancies as part of their new 'Delivering Excellence' plan, which they say is designed to improve customer service.

Adding insult to injury, the losses - which were not consulted with unions - came just days after the announcement of a huge rise in profits for the company.

There is also likely to be a ballot on strike action at Luton airport after the Transport and General Workers' Union discovered Polish agency workers were being paid substantially less than British workers at Big Orange Handling - the luggage handlers for Easy Jet.

Have conditions changed over the past few years?

The dispute is still continuing, with redundancy offers being attached to a number of conditions. The T&G bureaucracy is likely to broker a deal that will not be in the interests of the workers.

Baggage handlers launched a wildcat strike in solidarity with the catering workers. Releasing its results for the three months to 30 September, BA saw its pre-tax profit fall 18% to £241m.

Workers are still picketing daily on Beacon Hill, Gate Gourmet workers called a press conference today, the details of which follow below.

At the time, baggage handlers walked out for two days in sympathy with sacked workers at the airline's in-flight caterer Gate Gourmet.

British Airways said two of the shop stewards have been suspended on full pay while the third continues to work.

All three are members of the Transport & General Workers' Union (T&G).

Read information about the strike here:
http://libcom.org/tags/gate-gourmet

By far the best strike support website to check out is http://sackedbygategourmet.org.uk. Make sure you visit the support page for info on solidarity protests, support gigs, mailing list and more!