GATE GOURMET

'Gate Gourmet' is an airline catering firm with headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, and Reston, Virginia, USA.
As of 2004, it had 22,000 employees, a revenue of 2.4 billion Swiss Francs, and produced 195 million flight meals per year. Some of its clients are British Airways, American Airlines, United Airlines, Qantas Airways, Aerolineas Argentinas, Avianca Northwest Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Air France, Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines, Emirates Airlines, Thai Airways International, Swiss International Air Lines, and Amtrak.
Gate Gourmet's roots are in Swissair. For a long time, Gate Gourmet was considered Swissair's "Crown Jewel". The company was worth roughly 6 billion Swiss Francs before September 11 and the bankruptcy of Swissair. The rise of the oil price made it so that many airlines, Gate Gourmet's main customers, went bankrupt. The weakness of the airlines affected the whole industry. Thus, all of a sudden the crown jewel of Swissair found itself in a restructuring effort, which was soon felt by its employees. The company was sold in 2002 to Texas Pacific Group for $870 million.
A major dispute, reminiscent of the Grunwick Dispute of the 1970s, ensued when it sacked 670 staff based at London's Heathrow Airport in August 2005; the staff were gathered in a car park and the announcement made by megaphone. ^[1] In sympathy with the sacked workers, British Airways staff at the airport walked out, and mass pickets of Gate Gourmet were organised by the TGWU. Several workers alleged that Gate Gourmet had manufactured the dispute, in order to employ non-union workers at lower rates of pay and with worse conditions of employment. The company subsequently offered a redundancy package of more than twice the statutory minimum in an effort to resolve the labour difficulties, secure a new deal with British Airways, and avoid insolvency. The union later negotiated the reinstatement of some of the employees, but others have continued to protest at their treatment.
On March 1 2007, Texas Pacific Group sold its remaining shares in Gate Gourmet to Merrill Lynch.

Contents

Rivals

References

External links

Rivals

★ LSG Sky Chefs

★ Servair

References

1. Personnel Today, 31 August 2005

External links

★ Official website of Gate Gourmet

★ "Why protest is top of the menu for catering staff" – ''The Guardian'', 27 August 2005

★ Articles about striking Gate Gourmet workers at libcom.org