Union leader blames ‘pig-headedness’ of British Airways
concerns. They need to put customers first and ensure flight bookings are honoured and not cancelled at the eleventh hour.”
Ministers are also concerned that the next round of train strikes could be timed to coincide with the Commonwealth Games, which are taking place between July 28 and Aug 8.
“It would be a tragedy if the Commonwealth Games, an event meant to bring people together, was sabotaged by a deliberately timed strike,” a government source said.
The prospect of further travel chaos came on the second of three days of national rail strikes after 40,000 RMT members walked out in a dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
The RMT and Network Rail remain poles apart to the extent that the size of any pay rise – Network Rail is officially offering up to 3 per cent and the RMT wants a pay rise in line with 9 per cent inflation – has not even been discussed. According to sources on both sides, the talks are still stuck over the RMT’S demand that any job cuts are voluntary while Network Rail is insisting on a modernisation programme before any substantial pay offer can be made.
Yesterday, Network Rail managed to run just one service in five, with the last trains from London to Scotland leaving by 2pm. Passenger numbers were somewhere between 12 and 18 per cent of normal levels, it said.
Mr Johnson yesterday branded the strikes a “terrible idea”, describing them as “unnecessary”.
Union officials suggested the Heathrow strikes could spread to BA staff at Gatwick, although the airline has reduced flights from the country’s second biggest airport since the pandemic. BA ground staff at Gatwick are considering industrial action over pay.
Nadine Houghton, GMB national officer, said: “With grim predictability, holidaymakers face massive disruption thanks to the pig-headedness of British Airways.”
She said BA had offered its workers “crumbs from the table” in the form of a one-off 10 per cent bonus payment rather than reinstating “the 10 per cent they had stolen from them last year”. Ms Houghton urged BA to meet the unions’ demands, saying: “It’s not too late to save the summer holidays.”
Oliver Richardson, Unite national officer for aviation, said: “The problems British Airways is facing are entirely of its own making. It brutally cut jobs and pay during the pandemic even though the Government was paying them to save jobs.” GMB voted 91 per cent in favour of a strike and Unite’s members voted by 94 per cent.
In a statement, BA said: “We’re extremely disappointed with the result and that the unions have chosen to take this course of action.
“Despite the extremely challenging environment and losses of more than £4billion, we made an offer of a 10 per cent payment which was accepted by the majority of other colleagues.
“We are fully committed to work together to find a solution, because to deliver for our customers and rebuild our business we have to work as a team.”
Travel industry experts urged the two sides to settle for the sake of an industry brought to its knees by the pandemic. Clive Wratten, chief executive of the Business Travel Association, said: “Travellers deserve much better.”
Rory Boland, the editor of Which? Travel, said: “Passengers must not be made to bear the brunt of these strikes.”