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New Strike Threat for UK Airports

Travelers may face even more flight cancellations during the later part of this summer. This comes after Unite, the union, announced that they are going to ballot over 6,000 members for strikes over a pay dispute at 6 of the UK’s airports - Heathrow, Aberdeen, Stansted, Glasgow, Southampton and Edinburgh. The union says that they have already given the BAA, which owns and operates the airports, a 7-day notice of their intention.

The union members include firefighters, engineers and security workers, so a strike by these people will make it hard for the airports to remain open. Unite says that the staff that accepted a pay freeze last year were offered a 1% increase plus 0.5% conditional on removing shift payment when the workers are sick. They are also unhappy that what the airport operator calls a usual £700 summer bonus isn’t being paid, as well as the fact that staff have lost a £450 performance payment due to a missed target.

However, these airports may be in more trouble than with just Unite. Prospect, another union that represents over 100 technical and managerial staff, will also ballot for a strike. Both voting periods are set for July 23-August 12, but both sides have said they want to continue negotiations. Unite national officer for civil aviation Brendan Gold says that an agreement can be reached if the BAA is prepared to be more fair and realistic.

Everyone knows that Unite has been very busy this year. They have balloted and called British Airways’ cabin crew for strikes, leading to a total 22 days of walk outs. The cabin crew are currently voting on the latest offer from the carrier in hopes of the dispute ending.

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