Union warned British Airways about Heathrow problems

Union representatives who testified earlier today in front the House of Commons Transport Committee have told British politicians that workers at London’s Heathrow Airport had warned both British Airways and BAA, the airport’s privately owned operator, about the potential problems that they may face as they opened the new Terminal 5 to the public. Yet both British Airways and BAA executives were apparently not interesting in heeding these warnings.

Steve Turner, who represented Britain’s “Unite” union, told MPs that many of the problems stemmed from the fact that the United Kingdom’s flag carrier and airport authorities at the country’s largest hub did not consult labour representatives. Iggy Vaid, a shop steward affiliated with Unite echoed these same sentiments. “We had a lot of teething problems with the opening but these could have been avoided had we been listened to, but we were not,” Vaid told the House Committee.

Turner also noted that while the lack of communication between the airline and the union was not the latter’s fault, ordinary Heathrow employees and Unite members were the ones who had to deal with the wrath of furious British Airways passengers. Turner said that some members were even spat at, as Terminal 5 descended into chaos in early April.

Since the terminal’s disastrous opening, Heathrow officials have indicated that they had learned from this experience and that a similar mess was unlikely to occur in the future.

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