It’s been three weeks since this article was written but the
strike of the Gate Gourmet catering workers in Düsseldorf is still
going on (22nd of November). In August Gate Gourmet workers had been on
strike against sackings at the airport in London-Heathrow. They were
soon supported by British Airways groundworkers so the airport was
broad to a standstill for almost two days. The management accepted to
reinstate part of the sacked workers and pay higher compensations to
others. Unfortunately, the workers in Düsseldorf do not have that kind
of support, yet. But there are still fighting and hope to organize
enough pressure. Read the following article and the up-date to find out
how to support them... (More information
here)
Acts
of Solidarity are needed – and possible: in Atlanta, Bangkok,
Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Karachi, Madrid, New York, Paris,
Quito, Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo and more places in the
world...
The catering company Gate Gourmet became known worldwide
through a spectacular strike at London Heathrow Airport which caused
turbulence in international air-traffic. (see also
here)
Since October 7, workers in Düsseldorf of the worldwide
multinational (according to a self-portrayal: “150 branches on five
continents, with 26,000 employees”) are on strike. Out of 120
employees, 85 are actively on strike and stay at their strike-tent in
front of the company’s gate around the clock. A saying against the
strike breakers written with white paint on the street of the company’s
ground (“Schleimspur für Streikbrecher”) loosely means continuing to
work is the slimy way for scabs to kiss up to management. Passing
strike breakers get cat-calls. But visitors who come in solidarity get
coffee and rolls and information about the course and background of the
strike.
The strikers are an outstanding, strong group and they
point out that now they have gotten to know each other much better
during the strike than before, despite the fact that some of them had
worked together for sixteen years. Because they didn’t have common
break-times, and enormous amounts of work to do there was no time for
conversations during work. More than half of the employees are
migrants, most of them coming to Germany from Turkey, but also from
Poland, Morocco, Croatia, Greece, Sri Lanka or Brazil. Obviously
this has no negative affect on their solidarity.
“It was just enough!”
The
main reason for the strike was the steady growth of stress at work and
new impertinences by the management. They had no increase in
wages in three years. In the last two years, the workers had given back
half of their Christmas bonus. Now the management wants to enact deeper
aggravations: extensions of the weekly working hours from 38.5 to 40
hours, shortening of the yearly vacation by about five days to 25 days,
more flexibility with working hours and a reduction of bonuses for
night shift, Sunday work and holidays. The counter offer of the union,
NGG (Nahrungsmittel, Genuss, Gaststätten, union for the food industry
and restaurants), to compensate for the changes is a wage rise of 4.5
percent. When the negotiations failed, 93 percent of the workers voted
for the strike.
The business in Düsseldorf, formerly LTC, was
taken over by the multinational Gate Gourmet. The company agreement
after the takeover had already worsened the working conditions. Since
then, the work became more and more intensified. On the line, where
they equip 10-15,000 food trays a day, they don’t have any breaks
anymore. The drivers, who bring the catering/meals to the airplanes, by
their own estimates figured that they walk 15-20 km and move 10 tons
per hand per shift. The workers get a lot of pressure through the
threat of layoffs without notice, formal reprimands for the smallest
things and home calls when they are sick. In summer, they have to work
10-hour shifts to compensate for the fact that there are not enough
workers. The works council agreed to the longer hours. Most of the
workers are between 50-70 hours ahead on their work hour accounts. The
strike is not only about the 4.5 percent wage increase, but about the
whole situation – a situation that is not uncommon
nowadays. It is uncommon that the workers are fighting
back.
Organized break of the strike
The strike
has cost the company a lot of money already and has disturbed the
service of the airlines. Gate Gourmet serves LTU, Air France, Iberia,
Air Maroc, Turkish Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Deutsche BA, Egypt
Air, and others. In the beginning, flights had delays which caused
enormous contract penalties. Towards the official claim that the work
is running normally despite the strike, the strikers report that the
strike breakers have huge difficulties in coping with the unknown work.
From the viewpoint of the airport, they observe that the delivery and
loading of the catering into airplanes doesn’t work as smoothly as
before. Nevertheless, the company succeeded in half way maintaining
their production for 23 days. To weaken the impact of the strike, the
company invests in strike breakers and additional security to protect
the gates and the strike breakers from the rage of their colleagues.
Beneath
the little strike breakers for Gate Gourmet in Düsseldorf, there are
three of nine works councils members who refused to strike.
That includes the former shop chairman and his deputy, both were
deselected three month ago. “They’d rather represent the company than
the employees,” reported a worker at the strike tent. Even some of the
bosses are forced to now work in production. But most current workers
are from other Gate Gourmet locations (Frankfurt, Munich,
Stockholm...). The union NGG, which had organized the strike in
Düsseldorf, can’t do anything against it because those workers are
organized at Ver.di (service union)!? Additional strike breakers are
coming from two different temp agencies, Tertia from Krefeld and G+A in
Duisburg. Also, a few Chinese students are still working, yet the
strikers have some understanding for their situation: “They depend on
that job, they can’t do anything.”
A big part of the loss of the
production is balanced by deliveries from locations in Frankfurt
(Zeppelinheim and Kelsterbach). On October 19, a delegation of 25
workers went to Frankfurt to talk to their colleagues. They couldn’t
get into the location because the executive producer and a works
council representative stopped them in front of the gate.
Solidarity
The
strikers demonstrated at the airport compound two times and distributed
leaflets to passengers. Another demonstration, maybe in downtown
Düsseldorf, is under discussion (see: www.ngg.net). But Gate Gourmet is
present at many airports around the world, so it presents plentiful
opportunities to get active. We can show this multinational that we are
everywhere as well and we can inform workers at different locations who
probably face similar problems as the strikers in Düsseldorf. The
further course of the strike will particularly depend on the success of
preventing the strike break. When the strike at the catering division
affects international air traffic, which happened massively in Heathrow
due to the solidarity strike of the ground staff of British Airways,
then the workers will succeed in their struggle.
By now, many
solidarity addresses for NGG arrived at the strike tent, including
international ones, even a letter from IWW in Australia. The works
council of the temp agency G+A came over and promised to try to talk
their management into not sending workers anymore. If you want to visit
the strikers: go to Bahnhof Düsseldorf-Flughafen (not terminal), go
downstairs and walk along the sky train in the direction of the
terminal, shortly behind the LTU-plant you will see banners and the
strikers’ tent. (October 29th, 2005, 23rd day of strike, Wildcat Köln,
koeln@wildcat-www.de)
Gate Gourmet locations worldwide under here
[prol-position news #4, 12/2005]
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