Airport staff in pre-Christmas strike

[Colleen]

Check-in staff, baggage handlers and cargo crew at UK airports are planning a 48-hour strike from 23 December, the Unite union says.
The union said more than 1,500 workers at Swissport, the world's largest ground and cargo handler, would walk out following a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
Unite called on management to take part in "constructive talks".
It said the action, which will hit Christmas travel, was "a last resort".
Are we facing a Christmas of Discontent?
It is unclear exactly how many airports will be affected, but airlines at Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, Newcastle, Heathrow, Stansted and Manchester airports all employ Swissport staff.
Hand-luggage only
A spokesperson for MAG, owners of Manchester, Stansted, East Midlands and Bournemouth airports, said: "We are aware of this potential action and are contacting the airlines which use Swissport to understand their contingency plans to minimise any disruption were the strikes to go ahead."
A spokesman for airline Ryanair said: "All of our flights to and from the UK are scheduled to operate as normal.
"Should this action proceed, our flights may operate with hand-luggage only and we will update customers accordingly."
Swissport is one of several companies providing ground-staff services across the UK.
According to Unite, members voted by 62.5% to reject a 4.65% three-year pay deal for 2015-2017, which the union argues "barely" keeps pace with inflation.
It said workers were also angry that "detrimental" changes to terms and conditions had been linked to the pay deal.
'Last resort'
Conditions included freezing overtime payments for the foreseeable future and restructuring pay.
Unite's national officer for civil air transport, Oliver Richardson, 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 - 1% in 2015, 1.25% in 2016 and 2.4% in 2017 - they are barely keeping up with inflation."
Unite called for talks with the conciliation service Acas to resolve the dispute.
According to its website, Swissport is the world's largest provider of ground and cargo handling services in the aviation industry.
It caters for about 230 million passengers and 3.9 million flights per year.
About 2,000 British Airways cabin crew voted for strikes at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday in a separate dispute over pay and conditions.
The action could begin after 21 December but no dates have yet been confirmed.   Copied from BBC News

[llamedos]

What a cheek, they're pay deal is better than the armed services Police and NHS, they're probably just jumping on the bandwagon of other strikers.


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[Chris C]

Tosser's don't deserve a job, time striking (or aka blackmail) was banished to history

[David D]

Tosser's don't deserve a job, time striking (or aka blackmail) was banished to history

Tosser's?The majority of them are employed on 20 hours a week contracts earning either minimum wage or just above minimum wage,if they work overtime they still get the same rate of pay an hour until they they have worked 37 1/4 hours.As for not deserving to have a job the majority of them would be better off on the dole claiming all sorts of benefits,but instead choose to go out to work struggling to make ends meet.So before you call them tossers you should make sure you know all the facts because these young & old men,
women,boys & girls work hard in all weathers to make sure that there flights are turned around on 25 mins so you can get your flight on time.


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[Chris C]

But choose to strike at Christmas how convenient and coincidental. Nothing to do with jumping on the bandwagon and getting Christmas off work. It's the 21st century, time this behaviour was outlawed

[David D]

But choose to strike at Christmas how convenient and coincidental. Nothing to do with jumping on the bandwagon and getting Christmas off work. It's the 21st century, time this behaviour was outlawed

Do you think it's the workers that choose the days to strike ?if that's the case they would have done it last Xmas as well.The talks have been on going since 2015.Do you think they want to be short in there wages after Xmas for going on strike?i would love to know what you would say to your wife or kids or grandkids if they said to you I can't afford to pay my bills anymore unless we get a pay increase so the union has advised us to go on strike.Maybe you would tell them don't be so inconsiderate just go on the dole.


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[Chris C]

This day and age striking is wrong, only about 60% of them voted to go on strike so the other 40% possibly think the same as me. If they don't like the pay deal offered (which somebody has pointed out is higher than many public sector workers have been offered) then find a job working for someone else

[David D]

The other 40% were too afraid.Also couldn't afford to go on strike because they would be losing to much money.If airline workers were earning the kind of money that the public sector workers that were mentioned are earning they wouldn't be going on strike.The pay detail they were offered still falls well short of the hourly rate that they earn.As for finding a job working for someone else don't be so disrespectful to hard working people.


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[Chris C]

How do you know the other 40% were too afraid do you work with them? They probably just thought striking wasn't the answer

[David D]

I work in the airline industry with them


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[David D]

What a cheek, they're pay deal is better than the armed services Police and NHS, they're probably just jumping on the bandwagon of other strikers.


Please see my reply at bottom of page


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[Spurs]

Striking these days is pointless no one wins anymore not since Maggie Thatcher . Better to find another way that ruin people's Christmas that's one way guaranteed not to get support .come on it's not 1980s anymore

[sunseekers]

I dont know how much people think public service sector workers get but my daughters who get a very small amount over the minimum wage, are both working for local government, they have endured four years with no pay increases at all, one year where the pay increase was one percent and one of them has just had to re apply for the job she has been doing for over a decade as the local council 'deleted' their posts and they all had to re apply for their jobs, a way of implementing yet more government cuts! Its not all high wages and a cushy number, only the ones at the top like any private company too.

[David D]

Striking these days is pointless no one wins anymore not since Maggie Thatcher . Better to find another way that ruin people's Christmas that's one way guaranteed not to get support .come on it's not 1980s anymore

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[David D]

None of these workers want to strike,but they have been left with no alternative.These talks have been going on since 2015
there will be more talks next week to try to resolve this let's hope so then there Christmas won't be ruined either.


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