Scabs at Gate Gourmet - UK Indymedia

Complete berk or company fink?

23.08.2005 20:17

The T & G Union spent most of the weekend trying to persuade a Judge that there was no threat of violence or intimidation on the picket line and that workers have the right to picket peacefully.

Like an arsehole you stick up in a public web-site "burnscaburn", just the kind of evidence of "death threats" that the company will leap on. If you do support the strikers then stop posting shit like this nonsense you moron!

Of course you may just be a Pinkerton or member of Gate management either way you should learn to spell.

Joe Hill

Wow

23.08.2005 21:12

Who can argue with such intellectual, insightful commentary as BurnScabBurn has been giving us?

Humpty Dumpty

Be nice

23.08.2005 21:22

That would be the "reserve army of the unemployed" you've come up against. If you were so interested in your class, you might recognise that they need to sell their labour to live - just like the unionised Gate Gourmet workers. It would be nice if they were all so politically advanced that they could unite tomorrow and refuse to take these lowly paid temp jobs, so that the Gate Gourmet workers could keep their unionised positions, but what are the chances of that happening in the next couple of months? Pretty slim, slim. And if you just yell at them, even slimmer.

...

Don't just strike!

23.08.2005 22:38

I am not happy with blamming other workers for having to take scab jobs. After all my sympathy for those who work for dodgy companies comes from the fact that they HAVE TO work there for a living.

Instead of striking and picketing, next time why not take over and occupy the company? This way no work can go ahead :-) You see, the effective control of the means of production is not a far away goal -- it is the only credible demand and realistic strategy of working people.

Occupy your factories and work places now!

m.

How to control the means of production

24.08.2005 10:00

Rather than involving yourself in an unproductive and ultimately futile class war against the "bosses", why not set up your own business and compete against them? If you don't like the conventional model of ownership, start a workers' co-operative.

If Gate Gourmet are such a bad employer, surely it wouldn't be hard to attract good staff to an enlightened competitor? If I were a BA manager handing out the catering contract, I'd rather give it to a company that had guaranteed good "labour relations" due to workers' ownership, all else being equal, than a company that mistreated its workers and constantly ran the risk of not performing.

Zorro

And quality and health

24.08.2005 10:46

If I were a BA manager I would primarily be concerned with the standard of food provided and its effect on the health of crew and passengers. Even if a passenger only flies one sector a week, their health must be damaged by the current fair on offer. It is not difficult to keep fresh salads and fruit nice on even the longest sectors.

If Zorro's proposed workers co-operative, which could be formed as a limited liability company with each worker holding a share thus having the outward appearance of an ordinary company, leads to happy, well paid, well trained workers who take pride in the standard of the meals they supply, then I am all for it.

But how long would it take to set up such a company and aquire premises, equipment and airside passes for staff? We could be eating sandwiches for some time to come, but it would be worth it.

Mi

Scabs a product of Capitalism

24.08.2005 12:54

Scabs have always existed because of the way Capitalism is structured, so that there will always be someone more fucked up than yourself.
But let's not forget that over 1000 BA workers when on wildcat strike risking their jobs in solidarity with the sacked workers of Gate Gourmet, solidarity is our best weapon we must give it up.

Danny

no sympathy for scabs!

24.08.2005 13:23

Of course scabs are poor people driven by economic necessity! Nothing new here - this has been true for hundreds of years.

But the only way workers have won any victories is by stopping the scabs - physically if necessary. This is as true today as it was in 1889 with the birth of the T&G in the East London Dockers Strike. Scab then were also poor people desperate for work - but they had to be stopped through mass pickets. This wasw the only way our ancestors could to claw their way forward as working people, and help win the limited freedoms we enjoy today.

Obviously solidarity strike action is the best ally of the gate gourmet strikers....as shown by the magnificent baggage handlers action. If the T&G leaders had encouraged this to carry on, rather than defusing it, the strike would have won already, and any debate over stopping scabs w3ould be purely academic.

And yes, in response to other points, a factory occupation is normally better than a picket.

But the idea of setting up a workers coop to compete with gate gourmet....total shit!...the workers would have to hyper-exploit themselves to compete...thats the brutal logic of capitalism that drives gate gourmet too. We need a cooperative economy, not an isolated coop competing within capitalism. That lesson too is hundreds of years old.

The only way out is through strong unions, workers solidarity and eventually breaking out of the logic of capital into a new society.

Barry Kade

destroy the agencies

24.08.2005 13:38

As a poor fucker I know one thing - you don't have to take these jobs. as for this FAT country - the time has come for violence. You already do it every day without even thinking. Just because the people ( the majority ) are out of your sight in sweatshops and prisons across the planet. Yes burn class traitors - sorry forgot about the middle class posters. Oh its soooo terrrribbbleeeeee. Mummy I'm scared. As for the management accusing people of being violent - I wouldn't care if they were, I would also like to see the yellow press burn baby. Nothing is fair is it. Poor rob the poor. Rich rob the poor. The middle classes administer it and keep their heads down because they are LL really VERY nice peopal.

dolescum

Scabbing is against our class interestes

24.08.2005 14:33

I agree with the sentiments of the first post. Scabs are workers who care only about there interestets IN a context of an ongoing workers struggle. It's possible that they don't know the situation of why they are employed at this company or even if there is a dispute, if they don't then the best way is to target the employement agency to force them to withdrawal the recruitment. This can be done by direct action against there offices and property, so it causes them too much hassle to continue. Secondly the workers who have accepted this scab work most be told and informed that they are doing scabbed work and that they have ineffect been used to make 400 workers and there families face an uncertain future.

Depending on the reaction by the new workers then several options are available. If the new workers don't give a shit or don't wanna listen then they make a choice to side with the class enemy (remember kids that the sacked gate gourmet workers are sticking there necks out for their dignity, their families and their workmates they have actively taken the choice to struggle as workers for what they value. By doing this they struggle for all workers, those who have been sacked as well as potential new workers who might reap the benefits of better working conditions, pay, class solidarity).

Fundementally, this struggle is important no only for those that have lost their jobs but of all workers who will suffer the consequences of this struggle, if they lose. The main thing is to win and start going on the offence, do solidarity actions, undermine the scab work force, attack the work agencies, fundraise money for strike support, circulate the struggles....but most of all fight to win by any means neccesary.

....

24.08.2005 15:16

"As a poor fucker I know one thing - you don't have to take these jobs. as for this FAT country - the time has come for violence."

1) You're clearly not too poor to be able to afford internet access.

2) "The time has come for violence," has it? Is this the point where the 'anti-fascists' get what they want by physically intimidating people who don't share the same views as them? Maybe a quick beating to 're-educate' anyone who thinks there is another way to achieve your goals? Or, god forbid, disagrees with them altogether? Just how arrogant do you have to be to think that your opinions are so much more valid than anyone else's that you get to batter them into submission for their own good?

Now run along, it'll be time to pick up your GCSE results soon. And don't forget to slam your bedroom door on the way out to show your parents what evil Nazis they are.

FT

address

24.08.2005 15:39

hey Barry,
1st floor Alliance House, 34/44 Ormskirk Road
Preston
Lancashire
PR12QP
UK

nod nod wink wink...

@Tp

You really do want Gate Goumet to get that injunction...

24.08.2005 15:55

Strikes, occupations and and threats of violence achieve nothing. Well the violence might solve all your employment and accomodation problems for a few months at the taxpayers expense but that's all. The days of class war are over.

The worker's co-operative proposed by Zorro is the only alternative to Gate Gourmet's current management. Sure you might break a few bones belonging to those seeking work through the agencies, but there will be more. You might even drive Gate Gourmet out of business giving LSG Skychefs a monopoly at Heathrow. That'll be good for workers rights and customer choice, won't it.

But maybe you're more interested in conflict for it's own sake than the good of Gate Gourmet's workers and BA's passengers.

Mi

by the way Humpty

24.08.2005 16:15

see Humpty untwittingly supports the division between the 'intellectual' classes and the masses. Know where you're from pal.

class war against liberal cowards

tomorrows workers

24.08.2005 16:18

Anyone who steals a job for these US venture capitalists is creating conditions for the slave labour of our kids. So no fucking excuses for the scabs. If you steal our work and create bad constions for us and our children then you are our enemy.

another dolescum

Ahem

24.08.2005 16:21

when a scab walks by,
angels weep,
and the devil shuts his gates.

Memory-Hole-Catchers-Mitt

Please...

24.08.2005 20:56

And while the workers are busy fighting with each other over who's a "scab", who wins? You need to educate the agency workers that "an injury to one is an injury to all" and bring them over to the right side - which isn't done by violence, sorry to say. Try uniting with them and organising them into your union, or is that too middle class (you don't have to bring them cucumber sandwiches).

...

Fight together, not each other

24.08.2005 22:40

I agree. If you want to defeat Gate Gourmet, sign up all the agency workers for the union, instead of getting all macho about shouting "scab". That would be pretty impressive and a good use of your obviously boundless energy.

Kosher Meal for Seat 23D?

Patronising nonsense

24.08.2005 22:54

" You need to educate the agency workers that "an injury to one is an injury to all" and bring them over to the right side"

1) Is it your view that worker's are so uneducated that they don't realise that taking someones job during an industrial dispute is wrong?

2) Are they so dumb that when they see the picket line they can't work out that its undermining the rights of all workers to cross it?

3) How do you suggest that these poor unfortunate and witless members of the human race be educated?

4) How do you educate someone when theres an injunction that prevents you from speaking to them?

5) How does an unemployed agency worker benefit from being a member of a union?

() ()

Patronising?Moi?

25.08.2005 18:09

You're right - go back to shouting "Burn Scab Burn!" It is much more militant/macho, and no one has to do anything more difficult than yell at buses full of workers.

Colonel Mustard

Re: class war against liberal cowards

26.08.2005 12:20

I don't support any class wgar between intellectuals and the masses because I'm hardly an intellectual myself and I'm from a working class background. Plus if there is some kind of glorious working class struggle, I don't see how this fits into it like other strikes. Look at the picketing, it looks like you've just landed in Bombay! It's just that the person who wrote this article seems like he's getting a little too worked up about the whole thing. I imagine the author of this article as some 15 year old kiddy who's just dipping his toe in radical politics, while looking over his shoulder to make sure daddy hasn't found out what he's up to. Pretty much what I expect from people on Indymedia.

Humpty Dumpty

Is Humpty-Dumpty a racist?

27.08.2005 18:26

What's the big deal about a lot of strikers being of Indian origin. The trade union movement helped strikers at Grunwick remember? One of the biggest disputes in history.
Also, the stuff about co-ops is very naive. It would cost millions to set up a firm that would employ 2,000 odd people, possible but very difficult.

Matt

Humpty gives me the Hump

28.08.2005 13:18

Pity old Hump is "hardly an intellectual", or he might have got the brains to notice that not everybody in Britain is FUCKING WHITE.

Yessss, Humpty, the women at Gate Gourmet are primarily Asian. That is because in west London there are lots of Asian families, who have been around for generations and generations. Amazing, huh?

That's right. Its truuuue.

So are we to assume that Hump's idea of "working class solidarity" involves purely solidarity between white workers who eat boiled beef and two veg every day?

What kind of socialist are you, Dumpty? A "national socialist"?

Better to be a 15-yr-old writing about politics than an adult with the ignorance of a five-year-old.

Dan