Episode Details

On this day, 10 August 2005, the Gate Gourmet dispute began in London. British Airways (BA) had outsourced its airline meal production, primarily by Asian women workers, to Gate Gourmet, who cut wages and conditions. Planning on worsening conditions further, they brought in hundreds of agency workers to do the work of the permanent employees. Seeing agency workers in their usual posts, the workers assembled in their canteen to discuss and protest at what was happening. Gate Gourmet then sacked over 700 of the workers. BA baggage handlers then walked out on a wildcat sympathy strike, shutting Heathrow airport completely for 48 hours. But their union, the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), ordered them back to work. And although the sacked workers set up picket lines, TGWU officials reached an agreement with bosses for some of the workers to be reinstated on the inferior terms and conditions which the workers had opposed in the first place. Many of the workers fought on until April the following year, but the union refused to make their action official, and they were eventually defeated. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8178/gate-gourmet-dispute

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