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Texas Pacific Group's takeover of Gate Gourmet leads to "meticulously planned assault on trade unions"

Gate Gourmet, the catering division of SwissAir, was bought by Texas Pacific Group in the wake of the airline company's bankruptcy in 2002 . At the time of its acquisition by Texas Pacific Group, Gate Gourmet employed over 25,000 workers in 29 countries with 140 flight kitchens. For 2005, the figures are 22,000 workers and 109 flight kitchens. The path to "organic growth" at Gate Gourmet began with a meticulously planned assault on trade unions.

This began with the well-known struggle at Heathrow Airport in the UK, which was kicked off by the company stealthily hiring hundreds of contract workers in a restructuring program centered on mass dismissals and a dramatic degradation of employment conditions. The anti-jobs, anti-union offensive then moved to Germany's Düsseldorf airport, where (at the time of writing in late February 2006), members of the IUF-affiliated Food and Allied Workers' Union NGG have been on strike since 7 October 2005 over the company's refusal to negotiate wages and compensatory measures for increasingly arduous working conditions.

In a clear challenge to Germany's established collective bargaining framework, the company has been demanding enterprise-level concessions on working hours, holiday leave and shift pay despite the fact that these are negotiated at industrial sector level. A compromise negotiated between the union and local company management in early December 2005 was unilaterally scrapped by Gate Gourmet corporate headquarters, leaving the workers no alternative to continuing with their strike. There are now indications that the anti-union offensive is targeting other Gate Gourmet sites in Europe.

Related news on the union stuggles at Gate Gourmet:
New Collective Agreement at Gate Gourmet Düsseldorf Ends 6-Month Strike - 25-Apr-2006
Gate Gourmet Dusseldorf: Protest march in Zurich! - 17-Jan-2006
Strike at Gate Gourmet Dusseldorf continues into the New Year - 12-Jan-2006
Strike at Gate Gourmet Düsseldorf - still standing firm ! - 25-Nov-2005
Gate Gourmet workers on strike in Germany ! - 17-Oct-2005
Settlement reached in Gate Gourmet Heathrow dispute - 06-Oct-2005
Gate Gourmet: Reinstate Sacked Workers Now! - 17-Aug-2005
Gate Gourmet brutally sacks 800 workers at Heathrow Airport - 12-Aug-2005