Hunger Strike Ends As Sacked Belfast International Airport Staff Gain Inquiry

Hunger Strike Ends As Sacked Airport Staff Gain
Inquiry 
icNorthern Ireland, UK

Feb 18 2004

  
Two sacked airport shop stewards have ended their
brief hunger strike in Belfast after the Transport and
General Workers Union relented to their demand for an
inquiry to be held into the circumstances of their
dismissal.

Gordon McNeill and Madan Gupta confirmed they had
agreed to end their fast, which lasted less than a
day, following a meeting with T&GWU regional secretary
Brendan Hodgers.

" We now have an assurance in writing that the T&GWU
will hold an inquiry into our case," said Mr McNeill.

"We are very pleased with this outcome. The only
unfortunate thing is that it has taken almost two
years and the desperate step of a hunger strike to get
this result."

The two men, who had been staging their protest
outside Transport House in Belfast, were originally
sacked from Belfast International Airport in May,
2002, after they took strike action over a pay
dispute.

They were dismissed by their employer, ICTS, because
union officials claimed the strike was unofficial but
the men have always maintained they acted correctly
because the strike had been originally approved by a
union ballot.

The two shop stewards had been calling for a union
investigation into the dismissal of 23 workers who
were sacked after taking strike action in 2002 but,
until their threat of hunger strike, they had not
succeeded.

"This decision now leaves us free to do what we have
wanted to do all along; concentrate our fight against
our employer, ICTS, to make sure that other low-paying
companies cannot get away with sacking workers for
going on strike."
 

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