BA Finally Able To Resume Service After Wildcat Strike

ANN REAL TIME NEWS: 1555 EDT -- British Airways began a resumption of service Friday night, after striking baggage-handlers began returning to work. But authorities said it would be several days before the international traffic jam caused by the wildcat job action could be resolved.

A wildcat baggage-handlers' strike has grounded British Airways flights at London's Heathrow Airport, stranding some 70,000 passengers at the terminal since Wednesday.

"We have been here since 0530 BST and we are just waiting to see what's coming next and no one seems to really know anything," BA passenger Chuck Weinstein told the BBC.

The strike has also affected Qantas, Sri Lankan Air, Einnair, GB and British Mediterranian flights, since BA ground crews also handle aircraft from those carriers.

The chaos grew out of a dispute at airport caterer Gate Gourmet. Wednesday morning, the company brought in 130 temporary kitchen workers to help out during travel peaks. About 350 workers -- many under threat of being laid off -- found that so bitterly ironic that they walked off the job, according to local media reports.

Another 150 staffers who showed up for the afternoon shift were given the boot when they apparently failed to show up according to an ultimatum issued by a Gate Gourmet manager.

Thursday afternoon, London-time, British Airways baggage-handlers, cargo workers and loaders walked off the job in sympathy with the Gate Gourmet workers. The dominoes started falling as flight after flight after flight was canceled.

"The action being taken by British Airways staff is unofficial action and the union cannot support it," a spokesman for the Transport and General Workers Union told the BBC. "The union is doing all it can to get people back to work."

Gate Gourmet Director Richard Wells took no responsibility for the BA strike, denying that his treatment of catering staffers had anything to do with the baggage-handlers' walk-off.

"What is happening here today is not about Gate Gourmet staff, it's the fact that BA staff are not working. They are taking unofficial action," he told the BBC.

But BA CEO Rod Eddington saw the dispute in a much different light.

"It is a huge disappointment to us that we have become embroiled in someone else's dispute," he said in an interview British Broadcasting.

Gate Gourmet says it will not rehire the fired workers. The global catering company, which employs about 22,000 around the world, has faced tough financial times since a lot of airlines stopped serving meals after 9/11. Union leaders said they're calling in the lawyers over what they believe were illegal firings on the part of management.

In the meantime, British Airways is losing about $17 million a day in the wildcat strike, not to mention the compensation it'll have to pay to stranded passengers. It could take several days after the workers return before BA can right itself.

FMI: www.britishairways.com