BAA staff threaten strikes over Ferrovial dividend
15.06.09
Air travellers could face a summer of travel chaos over proposed strike action by BAA's 4,000 staff. The Mirror reports that 'a summer of flight cancellations looms after pay talks collapsed between airport owner BAA and the unions.'
A deal had been struck for a 12-month pay freeze after BAA pleaded poverty, with unions agreed that 4000 terminal-based staff should forgo a pay rise as the economic downturn bites. However, the newspaper reports that officials 'were furious after being kept in the dark about a £1.3 million [we think this figure may be wrong, but it comes direct from the paper] dividend which BAA’s Spanish owner Ferrovial is paying to shareholders.' The dividend is twice as big as any it has paid in the past, and was issued on May 20 – two weeks after pay talks were concluded.
A senior Unite union source told the Mirror: ‘We’re disgusted with BAA’s tactics. They gave us a sob story about having no money for modest pay rises. We agreed to let our members know there was no option but to freeze pay for a year. Then suddenly we discover the people with the hand on BAA’s purse strings are paying out huge dividends to shareholders.'
'We’ve been conned and we won’t stand for it. There is mutiny in the ranks and strike action is a real possibility. We are being lied to by BAA and no one is in the mood to do the company, or the travelling public, any favours.’
A BAA spokesman told the Mirror: ‘Discussions between BAA and its unions are private and ongoing. The aviation industry is going through a sustained difficult period, in line with other parts of the world economy.’
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