Unite Airports Strike Halts with New 2% Pay Offer

The staff at 6 of the UK’s largest airports voted last week to strike, but they have now been offered a better pay deal in the dispute. Unite union is backing the new offer and will give their members the opportunity to vote on it, while the impending walkouts have been called off.

The news was announced on Tuesday after Unite and airport operator BAA negotiated for hours. The firm operates the Glasgow, Stansted, Heathrow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Southampton airports and had previously offered their workers a 1% rise in pay and a 0.5% rise on conditional changes to sick pay, which was rejected of course, leading to the strike vote.

Under this new deal, the many firefighters, security workers and engineers at these 6 airports will get a pay increase of 2% and at least a £500 one-off payment, while sick pay conditions won’t change. Brendan Gold and Brian Boyd, the national officers for Unite, said that the talks were difficult, but they believe the offer to be fair. They are recommending the deal to their members.

Now that the strike has been canceled (at least for now), travelers and airlines can relax again. If the walkouts had gone ahead, it’s very likely that the airports would have been forced to close. This would have led to more big disruptions to the plans made by air passengers and losses for airlines, whose flights would have been grounded.

A BAA spokesman said that the tour operator believes the deal is fair considering the tough economic climate. The talks were constructive, he noted, and they apologize for the uncertainty caused by this dispute.