Salaries and working conditions for the 122 Gate Gourmet workers at Geneva Airport have been governed since 1997 by a CBA negotiated by their union, SSP, the Public Service Workers Union. Despite improving profits at Geneva Airport, the company proposed salary cuts and fewer benefits in collective bargaining in 2013.
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While SSP proposed arbitration, Gate Gourmet skyjacked the industrial relations process by summoning workers to one-on-one meetings to press them to sign new contracts.
With 86 workers refusing to sign, the company upped the pressure by resorting to a dodgy form of collective redundancy: giving notice of termination effective December 30 with the possibility of re-engagement on new, poorer wages and conditions effective 1 January.
Anyone not signing will be out on the tarmac come the New Year.
On September 14, the day after Gate Gourmet announced this ultimatum, some 20 workers went on strike.
On October 2, six strikers (including three union representatives) were sacked with immediate effect for participating in an action on September 28 at the Gate Gourmet office organized by the Support Committee.
The strike continues and continues to gain support from trade unions, activists and politicians in Geneva as well as from the IUF. The workers and their union will not give in to management bullying and have pledged to fight wage dumping and management contempt for the principles of constructive industrial relations.
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