Unite Strikes Threaten UK Airports

Travelers could face more flight cancellations later this summer now that Unite, the union, has announced that it plans to ballot more than 6,000 UK airport staff who work at 6 of the country’s airports, including those in Heathrow, Edinburgh, Stansted, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton.

Unite said that they have given a 7-day notice of their intention to the BAA, which owns and operates these airports. The workers that will be balloted for the strike include security personnel, firefighters and engineers, so if they are in favor of the action, it will be hard for these airport to stay open.

The union says that workers that agreed to a pay freeze last year were offered an increase of 1%, as well as an additional 0.5% conditional on removing shift payments when the staff are sick. Unite is also unhappy that their airport operator isn’t giving, what they have called, a £700 summer bonus, while the staff have already lost a £450 performance payment because targets were missed.

Unite isn’t the only union that the airports have to worry about though. Prospect represents more than 100 technical and managerial staff that work at the airports, and they have announced plans to ballot their members for industrial action as well.

Both of the voting periods have been set for July 23-August 12. However, both Unite and the BAA have said that they want to continue negotiating. The union’s national officer for civil aviation, Brendan Gold, said that a deal can be achieved if the company is prepared to be more realistic and fair.

Unite has been very busy with walkouts this year. Their British Airways cabin crew members have held 22 days of strikes total. However, they are currently voting on the last offer from the airline in hopes of ending the dispute.