Flight for their rights
THOUSANDS OF AIRPORT STAFF TO TAKE PART IN STRIKE ACTION OVER PAY AND CONDITIONS
THOUSANDS of staff at Heathrow Airport are to strike in the coming weeks over pay and conditions.
A total of 41 strikes will be held over 23 days, beginning on April 2, after the Unite union accused Heathrow bosses of planning to “fire and rehire” its entire workforce.
It comes after the airport introduced pay cuts across its workforce due to the collapse of its finances during the coronavirus pandemic.
The targeted strike action will involve engineering, airside operations, landside operations, fire service, campus security and central terminal operations.
The union says each sector will be taking seven days of strike action.
During the strike period, at least one of the sectors will be on strike on most days.
Unite says some 4,000 workers have experienced pay cuts of up to £8,000 (25% of their earnings in some cases) and report being forced to downsize, move to cheaper areas or give up their car as a result.
Last month the company’s chief executive John Holland Kaye disclosed that despite losing £2 billion last year the company still had “£3.9bn of liquidity, enough to see us through until 2023”.
The workers took their ninth day of strike action earlier this month, on Friday March 12.
Unite regional co-ordinating officer Wayne King said: “These strike days are avoidable, yet Heathrow is not listening.
“HAL (Heathrow Airport Holdings) railroaded these pay cuts through at a staggering speed, leaving thousands of workers on less pay just before Christmas.
“But while Unite put forward clear proposals in February to resolve the dispute, the company has yet to give any kind of formal response. This speaks volumes about the kind of industrial relations HAL wants and how its management views our members. As a consequence, Unite has launched a fresh wave of strikes which will cause considerable disruption and demonstrate that HAL’s contingency plans are not fit for purpose.
“HAL’s management are guilty of further inflaming the strike, by deciding that they will not pay for a partial shift worked if a strike is taken. This has simply angered members and will result in increasing the level and intensity of industrial action.
“There is a fortnight before Unite’s spring strike offensive begins and HAL management could still resolve this dispute if it has the will to do so.”
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “Fire and rehire is ripping through our workplaces like a disease. Weak law lets bad bosses force through brutal changes to contracts, sometimes taking thousands of pounds off wages that families need to get by.
“It’s a disgraceful practice that’s outlawed in much of Europe and should be here.
“Unite is fighting for UK workers to be treated with the same decency. We won’t stop until the law is changed to protect working people from attack.”
Heathrow has been contacted for comment.
The pay dispute follows the collapse of many businesses in the aviation industry which have been forced to furlough staff or make redundancies. It will have a huge effect on many areas of west London where large numbers of people are employed at Heathrow.
In Hounslow alone at the end of the summer of 2020, 40% of its working population was recorded as either on furlough or unemployed.
It is forecast 4,500 residents’ jobs associated with Heathrow will be lost in 2021.