Unions vote to take action over pay
18 August 2008
Strikes will affect UK airports over the bank holiday weekend after Unite and GMB members voted to take action over pay.
Baggage handlers and check-in staff at Gatwick and Stansted airports will stop work for two 24-hour periods, from 3am on Monday 25 August and from 3am on Friday 29 August.
Three hundred Swissport workers at Gatwick have rejected a 3 per cent pay offer. GMB members working for Airfield Services are striking over a 1.5 per cent pay offer.
A number of airlines will be affected, including Ryanair, easyJet, Virgin Atlantic and First Choice.
Gary Pearce, GMB officer for Stansted, said “GMB members cannot afford these low pay rises given the rising prices they have to pay for food, energy and transport.
“The employers, the airlines and the airport operator need to adjust their view on what our members will now accept. The only way they have of meeting higher prices passed on to them is to raise their own prices in higher pay rises.”
Unite national officer, Steve Turner, added: “This pay offer is an insult to professional, hard-working men and women who have to operate in extremely difficult conditions.
“We are demanding a national solution to this dispute that addresses the real cost increases our members face. Unite has requested a national-level meeting with the company to resolve this dispute but the clock is ticking and if this does not deliver, our members will strike.
"With the power in aviation concentrated in the hands of airlines who often understand the cost of everything and the value of nothing, professional, hard-working men and women are fighting back. There is an air of growing confidence amongst aviation workers and a genuine anger at ongoing attacks from the industry on their terms and conditions.”
Ryanair condemned the strike action, and said it will operate a full schedule of flights. Spokesman Stephen McNamara said: “Once again UK unions try to blackmail passengers over one of busiest travel weekends of the year. It is irresponsible to hold passengers to ransom and we will not allow it to disrupt Ryanair passengers. If the strike goes ahead we will contact passengers and ask them to use web check-in and carry-on luggage only so that all Ryanair flights will operate as normal.
“This strike is totally unjustified: union chiefs should be grateful that they are getting any increase at all at a challenging time for the global economy,” he added. “We call on union and company leaders to resolve the difference without having to strike and blackmail ordinary passengers in this way.”