Gate Gourmet was last night threatened with industrial action in the US if it does not conclude a deal with the 670 workers sacked at Heathrow.
The boss of Unite Here, the union for half a million American hospitality workers, warned the catering company that it would not stand by while counterparts in London lost their jobs. Bruce Rayner, union president, said his members would take "every lawful measure" in support of the west London workers.
Unite Here and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters recently forced Gate Gourmet to reinstate the health coverage rights of its employees in the US.
In a letter to Gate Gourmet's chairman and chief executive, David Seigel, Mr Rayner says: "I write to express Unite Here's unyielding support for the Transport & General Workers Union members negotiating with Gate Gourmet in the UK.
"As you know, Unite Here and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have been negotiating with Gate Gourmet on behalf of over 6,000 members working at your US kitchens.
"Let there be no doubt, we consider your assault on the union employees in London to be an assault on union members everywhere. We are outraged by such immoral behaviour and we expect that you will resolve this dispute by reinstating all of the fired workers. Failure to resolve the matter in the UK will certainly cause the unrest to spread across the Atlantic as our members will be forced to take every lawful measure possible to support our fellow union members."
Referring to the London dispute, Mr Rayner said his members "want to make sure Gate Gourmet knows we will not tolerate such actions in the US, the UK, or anywhere else in the world".
The threat was delivered amid fresh talks to resolve the dispute after negotiations on Monday and Tuesday ended in acrimony. The union said there had been progress on redundancy packages being offered by the caterer.
British Airways is ready to sign a new contract for Gate Gourmet to supply food on all of its flights from Heathrow until the year 2010. But the airline says the deal is conditional on the industrial dispute being resolved.
Hundreds of the workers have staged daily protests outside Gate Gourmet's Heathrow offices since they were dismissed two weeks ago. The firm claimed the workers were involved in an unofficial strike but the union maintained they had been locked out.
Gate Gourmet has so far refused to reinstate all the workers, insisting on the right to exclude "those who instigated and incited the walkout". It claims pickets have intimidated staff who chose to continue work, an allegation union members strongly deny.
Unions on both sides of the Atlantic accuse the firm of using provocative acts to try to trigger unofficial industrial action that would assist the process of sacking workers. -------------------------------------------------------------- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.