Airline unions plot to ruin summer holidays
Amid rail chaos, BA workers back strikes that will mean yet more misery for millions
‘Biggest strike wave on the railways since 1926’
UNION barons vowed to wreck the summer holiday plans of millions last night after British Airways staff voted to strike and the Commonwealth Games became a target for walkouts.
More than 1,200 Heathrow check-in and ground-handling staff voted for industrial action yesterday in a row over pay.
The GMB and Unite unions are expected to set strike dates for around July 22, when the school summer holidays begin.
They vowed only to call off the action, which threatens to ground hundreds of flights, if BA meets their demands within a week or so.
It came as the boss of the TSSA rail union, Manuel Cortes, said his members could team up with the militant RMT during the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next month to ensure ‘there’ll be no trains running at all’.
In other developments:
÷ The rail industry kept a fifth of trains running on the second day of RMT strikes yesterday – and will walk out for 24 hours tomorrow.
■ Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines threatened to cut union barons out of pay talks and go straight to staff to push through a deal.
■ A poll found opposition to the rail strikes is growing, with 41 per cent of people against them – up from 29 per cent three weeks ago.
■ Soaring inflation pushed up the interest bill on Britain’s £2.4trillion of national debt to £7.6billion in just one month.
■ Public-sector workers could get pay rises of up to 5 per cent this year to avert more strikes.
■ Bin men in Harlow, Essex, voted to walk out after turning down a 7 per cent offer.
If the BA walkouts go ahead, families could be forced to delay or cancel holidays – and face being stuck abroad if flights home are axed.
Unions only have to give two weeks’ notice of strikes. Customers whose flights are grounded will be entitled to receive a refund or be rebooked on an alternative flight on their day of departure, even if it is with a rival carrier.
But with airlines cutting their schedules due to staff shortages and airport flight caps, it is unclear whether there would be enough seats.
It will inflict a huge financial blow on BA, which lost billions of pounds during the pandemic.
Some 550 BA flights a day take off and land at Heathrow, but this is expected to rise in the summer.
The airline is drawing up emergency plans to keep as many flights as possible on strike days.
The dispute is over a 10 per cent pay cut check-in and ground-handling staff took in the pandemic as airlines made economies to stay afloat. Unions want full pay reinstated amid cost of living pressure and surging passenger numbers.
Staff say senior managers have had their full pay restored.
BA offered a one-off 10 per cent bonus, but this was refused. Talks between officials on both sides continued yesterday. It is the latest blow for an industry, which has struggled to ramp up operations as passenger numbers recover.
After carriers slashed thousands of jobs during the pandemic, hundreds of flights have been delayed or cancelled, huge queues have formed at airports and travellers have been forced to wait four hours or more for luggage.
GMB national officer Nadine Houghton said: ‘With grim predictability, holidaymakers face massive disruption thanks to the pigheadedness of British Airways. It’s not too late to save the summer holidays – other BA workers have had their pay cuts reversed.’
Oliver Richardson, Unite’s national officer for aviation, said: ‘Strike action will inevitably cause severe disruption to BA’s services.’
Ninety-five per cent of Unite and GMB workers voted to strike.
The GMB said it has also started a separate consultative ballot with thousands more BA workers, some at Gatwick, over demands for a pay rise in line with inflation. Other unions are also flexing their muscles. The National Education Union has warned that schools could be next in line for strikes unless ministers offer ‘inflation-plus pay increases for teachers’.
Unions representing doctors, nurses, civil servants and postal workers are also threatening industrial action over pay. Some want 5 per cent above inflation, which hit 9.1 per cent this week.
Yesterday, Mr Cortes said his union could plot walkouts with the RMT to hit the Commonwealth Games, which begin on July 28. Asked if the ten-day event will be targeted, he said: ‘That’s clearly a possibility. We’re probably heading towards the biggest strike wave on the railways since 1926.’
BA said: ‘We’re disappointed. Despite losses of more than £4billion, we made an offer of a 10 per cent payment which was accepted by other colleagues.’
HAVING suffered the misery of two pandemic-ruined summers, the country is itching to let its hair down.
Millions are dreaming of sun and sea. Tickets to sporting and cultural events have been snapped up. Fun is the name of the game. Or it would be but for the unions.
British Airways staff have voted to strike, wrecking families’ holiday plans. And the rail unions are now plotting to disrupt the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Meanwhile Sir Keir, supposedly a champion of working people, has vanished again to avoid saying where he stands – with commuters or with the wreckers. Where can he be? We know – in the unions’ pocket!