Hopes that an airport strike can be averted in time for holidays
THERE are hopes that an airport workers’ strike before Christmas could be called off.
About 90 Swissport employees at East Midlands Airport are due to take part in a Unite strike on Friday and Saturday.
The company, which has been involved in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions with the union, employs check- in staff, baggage handlers and cargo crew at the Castle Donington airport.
However, Swissport and Unite have now agreed to go into talks led by the mediation service Acas between now and Friday.
A unite spokesman said: “We have members at East Midlands Airport.
“The hope is we can reach a negotiated settlement before the walk-out takes place.
“This is the first time we’ve had talks with Swissport and Acas.”
A Swissport spokesman said that if the strikes did go ahead, the company would do everything in its power to limit the effects on passengers at East Midlands Airport and other airports.
He said: “This is another in a series of recent examples where a minority of trade union members are acting in a cynical fashion to disrupt the travel plans of the public and attempt to hold employers to ransom, without giving thought to the long term job security of staff, and the commercial viability of employers.”
But Unite national officer for civil air transport, Oliver Richardson, said the strike was a last resort.
He said: “Our members are only taking this industrial action as a last resort in a bid to reach a fair settlement – our members have not had a pay rise since 2014.
“When you break down the headline figures – one per cent in 2015, 1.25% in 2016 and 2.4% in 2017 – they are barely keeping up with inflation.
“The dispute has been compounded by the highhanded attitude of the management in making proposals that would seriously impact the workforce’s terms and conditions, such as freezing over-time payments.”
Other airports that would be affected by the industrial action are Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Doncaster, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Glasgow, Heathrow, Leeds/ Bradford, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, Southampton and Stansted.