Now Heathrow staff go on strike: BA staff vote to walk-out during summer

Hundreds of British Airways workers at Heathrow today voted to go on strike in a pay dispute that has now ruined summer holidays for thousands of families.

The militant GMB and Unite unions have blamed ‘pig-headed’ aviation bosses for causing the wave of industrial action by imposing mass layoffs during the Covid lockdown, as negotiations over pay acrimoniously descended into mudslinging today.

BA said that the unions had rejected a 10% pay offer in favour of walkouts as early as next month, potentially during the school holidays. However, union barons claim the airline’s offer was a one-time ‘bonus’ and its members want the full salary returned.

Heathrow, Britain’s biggest airport has been mired in chaos since March after huge numbers of staff in security, airport traffic control and baggage handling were fired during the pandemic. The west London hub has failed to manage a ‘baggage crisis’ which has seen huge numbers of luggage pile up outside Terminal 2. Flyers who have lost their luggage have complained on social media that they have been forced to wait a week to be reunited with their bags. 

The vote raises fears of a ‘summer of discontent’ that could see teachers, NHS staff and civil servants go on strike as inflation hit a 40-year high of 9%. It comes as Mick Lynch’s RMT union this week unleashed a series of mass walkouts that have brought the UK’s rail lines to a juddering halt.

In a statement, BA said it is ‘extremely disappointed’ that the unions ‘have chosen to take this course of action’ and vowed to ‘work together to find a solution’. 

Members of the GMB voted by 91% in favour of industrial action while Unite said 94% of its members backed action, the unions said. 

GMB’s National Officer Nadine Houghton, who ran as a Labour candidate in 2019, said: ‘With grim predictability, holidaymakers face massive disruption thanks to the pig-headedness of British Airways. BA have tried to offer our members crumbs from the table in the form of a 10 per cent one off bonus payment, but this doesn’t cut the mustard.

‘Our members need to be reinstated the 10 per cent they had stolen from them last year with full back pay and the 10% bonus which other colleagues have been paid. What did BA think was going to happen? It’s not too late to save the summer holidays – other BA workers have had their pay cuts reversed, do the same for ground and check in staff and this industrial action can be nipped in the bid.’

Unite officer Russ Ball said: ‘The problems British Airways is facing are entirely of its own making. It brutally cut jobs and pay during the pandemic even though the Government was paying them to save jobs.

‘In the case of this dispute, they have insulted this workforce, slashing pay by 10% only to restore it to managers but not to our members. BA is treating its loyal workforce as second class citizens and they will not put up with it a moment longer. Strike action will inevitably cause severe disruption to BA’s services at Heathrow. The company has a short window of opportunity to reinstate our members’ pay before strikes are called. I urge BA not to squander that opportunity.’

Ministers fear Britain could face a summer of strikes as unions flex their muscles in pursuit of inflation-busting pay rises.

The National Education Union yesterday warned that schools could be next in line for strike action unless ministers stump up ‘inflation-plus pay increases for all teachers’. Unions representing doctors, nurses, civil servants and postal workers are also threatening industrial action over pay. Some have even demanded settlements 5% above inflation – which yesterday hit 9.1%.

It comes as the Government plots to rush forward new laws today which end the ban on using agency workers to break strikes.

As BA staff voted to go on strike, it emerged today:

• Speaking from Rwanda, Boris Johnson called the train strikes ‘unnecessary’ and a ‘terrible idea’, and stressed the benefits of ‘sensible reforms’ of the rail system;
• Teachers have threatened to go on strike this autumn if their pay demands are not met. Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said such a move would be ‘unforgivable’, particularly after the disruption of the Covid lockdown;
• The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) announced that its workers are to vote on strikes next month – so the earliest that industrial action could be taken is July 27;
• Meanwhile the GMB union is today set to announce the results of a strike ballot of BA check-in and ground staff at Heathrow Airport for later this year. The move would ruin the summer holiday plans of millions of families;
• And the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents postal workers, could be among the next group of workers to strike for higher pay;
• Ministers will rush forward new anti-strike laws today as militant rail unions inflict misery on millions of travellers again;
• Keir Starmer’s authority is being tested after more Labour MPs today defied the party whips and joined picket lines with striking…