Airport Chaos Looms After Strike Action Vote
9:59pm UK, Thursday August 12, 2010
Thousands of holidaymakers face travel chaos after workers at BAA airports – including Heathrow – voted overwhelmingly to strike in a row over pay.
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A ballot involving 6,185 staff resulted in a three to one vote in favour of strike action, the Unite union said.
No walkout dates have yet been announced but Unite will meet on Monday to decide what form of industrial action its members will take.
Action will not only affect Heathrow but also Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh airports.
The earliest a strike could be called is Monday, August 23 – just ahead of the bank holiday weekend.
Sky’s business correspondent Joel Hills comprehends any action is likely to take place over a couple of days.
“I’ve been told it will not be seven days of industrial action, it will be far more concentrated than that, but the union is keeping its cards close to its chest,” he said.
“But this strike will be more widely felt than the British Airways walkouts. A two-day strike by BAA staff will affect more passengers than in the 22 days of strikes by BA staff that we have seen since March.”
On average around 350,000 passengers a day travel through the six airports and the strike will impinge on around 220 airlines.
Announcing the result of the ballot, Unite national officer for civil aviation Brian Boyd stated BAA “faces a total shut down of its six UK airports”.
But he stated there was still time for BAA to “get round the table and negotiate” and that it would “not take much” to sort out the dispute.
A BAA spokesman stated the company regretted “the uncertainty” that the vote has caused passengers and airline customers.
“We hope that the union will engage with us quickly to conclude an agreement,” he said.
Earlier, Prime Minister David Cameron had stated any strike would be futile.
“These sorts of strikes never achieve anything apart from damage – damage to business, damage to jobs, damage to the interests of tourists who want to come to visit Britain, or people who want to leave Britain and have a holiday overseas,” he told reporters at No 10.
Unite had urged firefighters, engineers and support and security staff at BAA airports to vote for industrial action over what it called the company’s “measly” pay offer.
The union stated staff had already accepted a pay freeze in 2009 and that this year the company had offered staff a 1% rise, plus 0.5% which was conditional on changes to a sickness agreement.
If it’s not companies going bust then it’s volcanic ash, and if it’s not that then it’s BA staff on strike.
Sky’s Scotland correspondent James Matthews
Sky’s Scotland correspondent James Matthews, at Edinburgh airport, stated the mood among the public and management staff was one of “dismay”.
He added: “If it’s not companies going bust then it’s volcanic ash, and if it’s not that then it’s BA staff on strike.”
Industrial action will have major implications for airlines such as BA and Ryanair, which have endured a tough year because of the recession and the Icelandic volcano eruption that closed air space in April.
In July BA announced a quarterly loss of £164m for the three months to June 30.
The combination of the still unresolved cabin crew dispute with Unite and the ash cloud cost the airline around £250m over the quarter.
Ryanair condemned the latest strike action for being “timed during the peak summer travel period”.
As a result, the airline stated it will be forced to cancel up to 300 flights per day at Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Stansted airports.
But easyJet, which operates at Gatwick, Bristol and Luton, stated the majority of its flights would not be affected.
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Submited at Friday, August 13th, 2010 at 12:00 am on Business by samantha
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