Border walkout ‘is cynical bid to sabotage Games’

May attacks union for eve-of-olympics strike

THERESA May last night accused a militant minority of attempting to sabotage the Olympic Games as union bosses confirmed a potentially devastating strike by border staff next week.

The walkout on Thursday threatens to paralyse Britain’s airports on the eve of the Games opening ceremony, and cast a shadow over London 2012 before it has even begun.

Bosses of the Public and Commercial Services Union confirmed the timing of the strike yesterday and insisted it would go ahead, despite barely one in ten of those eligible voting in favour.

In an open letter to border staff, the Home Secretary issued a patriotic call for them to defy the walkout in a dispute over job cuts, pay and privatisation.

She urged them to ‘do what their country needs’ and ‘turn up for work’.

She wrote: ‘The union bosses who are trying to disrupt the Olympic Games should hang their heads in shame.

‘I simply do not understand how anyone could want to take industrial action against the Greatest Show on Earth. Their behaviour is nothing short of sabotage. The public will nei- ther sympathise nor understand.’ David Cameron said the strike was not ‘justifiable’, while Labour leader Ed Miliband said: ‘People should not be disrupting the Olympic Games.’

Business groups also condemned the strike, which was backed by just 1,800 out of 16,000 balloted workers.

The turnout was 20 per cent, meaning some 3,200 voted. Of those, 57 per cent voted in favour of a strike.

It is cynically timed to do maximum damage on the day when Olympic arrivals through Heathrow are expected to peak.

Around 127,000 passengers are due to pass through the airport, a 45 per cent increase in normal numbers.

The walkout is also likely to hit hundreds of thousands of families heading overseas for their summer holiday.

The union has instructed staff to ‘work to rule’ and refuse to do overtime for nearly a month from July 27 to August 20. It said further strikes could be called for later this year.

The strike will spark further demands from Tory backbenchers for tougher union laws to stop a handful of work- ers in effect holding the country to ransom.

Tory ministers have discussed requiring a 40 per cent minimum turnout before a strike is lawful, and London Mayor Boris Johnson has said half of eligible voters should have to approve a strike for it to go ahead.

PCS members make up around 5,000 out of 8,000 Border Force staff who check passports at Britain’s ports and airports.

Ministers have promised that every passport checking station at Heathrow will be manned during the busy summer

‘Hang their heads in shame’

period, a pledge which could be fatally undermined by the strike.

Immigration minister Damian Green said the PCS decision to strike was ‘shameful’ and insisted contingency plans were in place.

However, he admitted it was impossible to forecast the scale of the disruption.

He said: ‘We’ve got, obviously, contingency plans in place, we’ve known about the strike ballot for some time, and this is the third strike the PCS has called in the last nine months.’ Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, claimed ‘cuts’ meant staff were at breaking point.

He said: ‘ Ministers have known about these issues for a very long time and need to act now to sort out the chaos they have caused.

‘They’re acting recklessly in cutting so many jobs and privatising services, and are provocatively refusing to talk to us with a genuine desire to reach an agreement.’

Later Mr Serwotka claimed that the strike would not affect the Olympics.

He told the BBC: ‘I think the Government is whipping up hysteria about the Olympics, there’ll be no disruption to the Olympics, this is a 24-hour strike before the Olympics actually takes place.’

Train drivers also announced an Olympics strike yesterday over pensions. Members of the Aslef union on East Midlands Trains, serving London, the East Midlands and South Yorkshire, plan to walk out on August 6, 7 and 8, when a number of athletics finals will be held in the Olympic Stadium. The company, owned by Stagecoach, said the public will be ‘shocked and angry’ that strikes are being planned at a time of ‘great national pride’.