GateGourmet on strike

British Airways' Heathrow Food Fight Gets Ugly: All Flights Canceled
British Airways' dispute with its caterers spread to its ground workers yesterday, and finally led the airline to cancel all of its flights at its London Heathrow hub -- its biggest operations center and the world's busiest international airport

he cancellations, which the airline says will affect about 70,000 passengers, came as some 1,000 British Airways ground workers walked off the job Thursday in what their union is calling an "unauthorized" job action.

The BA workers are acting in solidarity with workers from British Airways' caterer, GateGourmet, more than 700 of whom were fired for staging their own unauthorized job action.

Flight disruptions began Wednesday, when the catering worker walk-out led to the cancellation of some flights and others departing without food or beverage stocks. After British Airways' own ground workers began walking off the job, early Thursday, the airline cancelled all of its flights for the remainder of the day -- 120 flights yesterday alone.

The company later revealed that because of the action, at least 100 of its aircraft and 1,000 of its pilot and cabin crew are in the wrong place around the world, causing the airline to extend the cancellations through Friday.

In a statement issued yesterday, British Airways CEO Rod Eddington pleaded for GateGourmet management and its workers union, the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), to resume negotiations to resolve the crisis.

"It is a matter of huge disappointment that we have become embroiled in an issue which is not a dispute with British Airways and disrupted thousands of people who were about to take their hard-earned summer holidays," said Eddington in a statement. "I now call upon TGWU to repudiate this action and to urge its members in the strongest terms possible to put our customers first and go back to their work places."

Other carriers out of Heathrow are attempting to add capacity. Bmi says it is up-gauging its aircraft on flights to Edinburgh and Glasgow and adding an additional flight to Mumbai.

GateGourmet, which acquired its Heathrow catering operation from British Airways itself in 1997, says it had met with the union on 30 occasions and that the company remains committed to mediation talks, which were scheduled to have begun today.

Another unofficial ground worker strike action hit British Airways at Heathrow in July of 2003, also leading to days of flight disruptions.

-COURTESY OF http://www.commercialaviationtoday.com/archives/2005/3-3146-cat-12-Aug-05.htm-