UK airports to be hit by ground worker strike

Transport 02/03/2011

Union members across six British airports yesterday voted in favour of industrial action that will affect the travel plans of thousands of airline passengers.

The strike may kick off as early as the August bank holiday weekend at Heathrow, Stansted, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Southampton and Aberdeen airports.

Such a walkout by airport ground staff would mean widespread closures and flight cancellations at airports owned by the British Airport Authority (BAA).

The dispute is over pay conditions; BAA offered Unite union members a 1% pay increase (plus a further 0.5% dependent on changes to their sickness agreement), with Unite dismissing the offer as "measly."

Unite argued that its members accepted a pay freeze last year so a bigger pay rise was justified.

Brian Boyd, a spokesman for Unite said, "Strike action is the last resort to stop our members' living standards falling for the second year in a row."

The official statement on the BAA website reads, "We believe that our offer of a conditional 1.5% pay increase is fair and reasonable during a very difficult economic climate for the aviation industry."

The union will announce its next move on Monday.

The editorial team