When Gate Gourmet brought on 30 seasonal nonunion workers on Wednesday of last week, after saying it needed to lay off 675 people, hundreds of the company's full-time workers left their stations and assembled in the company's cafeteria. "People just wanted an explanation from the management and the union," said Mrs. Atwal, Gate Gourmet's former shop steward, who goes only by her last name. "We had no intention to have a strike. We just wanted to know what was going on."

The situation became ugly immediately, both sides say. The employees, who are mainly women, contend they were not allowed to contact their union representatives and were locked into Gate Gourmet's kitchens without being allowed to use the bathroom. Later in the day, they were told they had been fired and that their cars would be towed if they did not leave.

Gate Gourmet's chief executive, David N. Siegel, the former US Airways chief executive who is no stranger to union actions, said the company pleaded with the employees to return to work and that the threat to tow their cars was made only because employees from the next shift could not find parking spaces. Employees were told they could be escorted to the bathrooms, but some chose to urinate in sinks instead, he said.