Airport strike threat
12.06.09
Birmingham Airport workers - and workers at a number of other UK airports - could hold summer strikes after bosses at a ground services company said they ‘did not have the money’ for pay rises agreed last year, the Post reports. Check-in staff and baggage handlers employed by Swissport are angry the a 2.75 percent pay increase that has not been honoured by their employers.
The two-year pay deal was agreed last year and salaries should have increased from April 1. The same deal was agreed with members across the country, who also work at the UK’s busiest airports, including Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted, as well as Manchester, Glasgow and Newcastle.
The Unite union told the newspaper that Swissport had told them it does not have the money to honour the agreement. John Partridge, deputy regional secretary at Unite, said: ‘This is a two-year deal that was agreed last year but has not been paid. There was a formal agreement for a 2.75 percent pay increase that should have started in April. They told staff that they were very sorry but they were not honouring the pay rise because they could not afford it. They said they simply didn’t have the money.'
‘They agreed to meet one of our national officers. He told them that they had to come up with the cash. We went out to the members to see if they would support the principal of industrial action and they said yes. We are now waiting to see what Swissport have to say for themselves. It is potentially serious because if Swissport say they are not going to pay then there will be a ballot for industrial action .’
A Swissport spokesman told the Post: ‘As part of a pay agreement a minimum increase of 2.75 percent was agreed. However, in common with the rest of the world, the subsequent economic events were obviously not foreseen. We have invited the trade union to join with us in seeking ways both to increase revenue and productivity and reduce costs to fund these improvements. But unfortunately they have refused to enter into any discussions.'
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