IOL: BA catering deal ends long-running row

IOL: BA catering deal ends long-running row: "BA catering deal ends long-running row
20/10/2005 - 19:12:04

British Airways tonight signed a new deal with its caterers at Heathrow Airport, finally bringing to an end a row which led to huge travel disruption in the summer.

The airline signed a commercial agreement with Gate Gourmet, which was involved in a bitter dispute after sacking hundreds of workers.

BA�s baggage handlers staged sympathy strikes, grounding flights at Heathrow for a day in August.

Gate Gourmet, which supplies in-flight food for BA�s services at Heathrow, reached a deal last month with the Transport and General Workers Union which saw hundreds of its employees take redundancy.

Eric Born, managing director of Gate Gourmet, said: �Throughout the difficulties of the past few months, our overriding objective has been to secure the future viability of Gate Gourmet�s Heathrow operation and the jobs that depend on it. Today�s agreement helps us to achieve both.

�Despite all that was said during the dispute we did not provoke nor did we seek a conflict with our staff or trade union.�"