[Coolhand]

Many of the catering staff WERE apparently BA staff (and hence TGWU members), but when the contracts were outsourced, they were transferred to the new employer. Recently there have been a lot of redundancy noticies issued by that employer. AND now a load of temporary staff have turned up to work for that firm.

So look at it from the baggage handlers' point of view. They've seen their colleagues transferred to a third party company which has promptly started to lay them off and replace them with temporary staff. Nice. And of course the BA staff are probably extremely worried (perhaps with good reason) that they're next in line for the same treatment.

It's hard for the passengers but that shouldn't take away the moral right that workers have to stand up for themselves. Management of firms like BA can't use passengers as human shields for unreasonable treatment of employees.