London Airports’ Staff Vote for Strike
Millions of air passengers are in for a lot of travel chaos over the August bank holiday weekend at the largest airports in the UK. This comes after Unite announced that their airport staff members have voted to go on strike.
The workers, who are employed by the British Airports Authority (BAA), took the vote after rejecting changes to working conditions and pay, something that has been happening all across the industry. The organization had offered a 1% pay increase, as well as a 0.5% rise that is conditional on changes to a sickness deal.
Unite, which represents nearly 66% of the organization’s workforce, said yesterday that 75% of them voted in favor of the walkout. These workers include firemen and security officers that work for the airports in Heathrow, Glasgow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Southampton. Because the airports have to have a minimum level of staff for their fire stations and security gates, this strike could close many of them.
The union says that their officials are set to meet next Monday to decide on dates for the industrial action. Under regulation, they have to give a 7-day notice of the walkouts before staging them. This means that they will have enough time to call the strike at the end of August, during the bank holiday weekend. However, the BAA and Unite were still hoping for a resolution.
Unite national officer Brendan Gold said that the BAA is hurting passengers by allowing this row to get this far. They are calling on them to have more talks so that a fair deal can be made, he added.
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