Sacked shop stewards to commence hunger strike in Transport House in London from 2.00pm on Thursday 23 August demanding justice from the T&GWU/Unite

• 22 Sacked airport security workers at Belfast International airport win landmark Industrial Tribunal case;

• Security firm ICTS ordered to pay £750,000 damages;

• Tribunal finds that the workers were unfairly dismissed;

• Tribunal also finds that four shop stewards were victimised and sacked because of their socialist political beliefs;

• Shop stewards claim this as a "victory for all trade unionists"

Sacked Belfast Airport Workers Committee

Shop stewards to start a hunger strike in Transport House in London (Transport House, 128 Theobald's Road, Holborn, London WC1X 8TN) unless the T&GWU meet their demands for an inquiry and meet their legal and other costs

The Facts:

1) Five years after they were sacked by their employer, security firm ICTS, for taking strike action over pay, the 22 sacked airport workers have won their Industrial Tribunal case.

2) The Tribunal unanimously found that ICTS unfairly dismissed the 22 workers.

3) The Tribunal also found that the four shop stewards, Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta, Chris Bowyer (T&GWU) and Malcolm Spencer (GMWU) were “unlawfully discriminated against” on the grounds of their socialist political beliefs.

4) This follows an earlier High Court judgement, ratified in the Court of Appeal (Jan 2006) that the strike action was legal.

5) In total the compensation awards amount to £750,000.

6) Although the 14 May 2002 strike was balloted for and had been sanctioned by the T&GWU, one day later a T&GWU official met secretly in a public house close to the airport with ICTS directors and gave them letters repudiating the strike.

7) The workers received no assistance from the T&GWU with their legal case against ICTS. They were forced to re-mortgage their houses to meet legal costs and now have a legal bill of £200,000 as well as massive personal debts.

8) The shop stewards are demanding that the union launch an inquiry into the way they handled this dispute and meet the full legal and campaigning costs that the workers have incurred over the past five years.

Sacked shop steward Gordon McNeill today commented:

“We were low paid workers who went on strike for a pound an hour increase to bring us up to the same rate as the airport porters. We were victimised and sacked by ICTS and have been forced to fight a five year battle without assistance from our union to get some measure
of justice.

“We are proud that the judgement we have won – that we were sacked for our socialist political beliefs – is a victory not just for us, but for all trade unionists. It allows trade union members who are victimised and sacked to claim political discrimination, not just unfair dismissal.

“This together with the earlier Court of Appeal judgement that workers can reactivate suspended strikes without giving employers any prior notice strengthens the hand of the trade unions in future disputes.

“As soon as our Industrial Tribunal case ended in June we wrote to our union asking for discussions to sort out our differences so that we could jointly celebrate and build on the victory we felt was coming.

“We received neither acknowledgement nor reply. That is why we decided to go to London to begin a hunger strike demanding that, now that we have proven our point, the union give us the backing they should have given us over the past five years.

“We are very pleased that General Secretary, Tony Woodley, has agreed to meet us on Thursday. If we get satisfaction from that meeting we will book flights home. If we do not we will immediately begin our hunger strike in Transport House.

“The new merged union is called “unite”. Our message to them is: Live up to the name, unite behind the sacked airport workers.”

Gordon McNeill - 07934632366
Chris Bowyer - 07764850945
Madan Gupta - 07810290938

Issued by Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer on behalf of the 23 sacked airport security workers. They can be contacted from 11am in London. Expected time of arrival at Transport House 12.30pm.

For further information, see contact details above
Email: belfastairportworkers@hotmail.co.uk

Related:
- Media coverage of the press conference
- Sacked Belfast Airport Workers Committee Leaflet
- "Sacked airport shop stewards take the fight to the union" (from The Socialist, Aug 2007)