The dates of suspension of activities coincide with days of great influx of travelers, such as the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha, the start of school holidays and a holiday in August.
Security personnel at London Heathrow airport (United Kingdom) announced Wednesday a new wave of strikes during the summer to demand better wages.
More of 2,000 security guards, members of the Unite union, will suspend their activities for 31 days, on dates scheduled between June 24 and August 27. In addition, for the first time, the staff of Terminal 3 will join the actions, which until now had been carried out by workers from Terminal 5, the organization said.
The union described the action as “a great climb” in its pay dispute with Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL), the operator of the airport. It is expected to cause disruption to flights by airlines including Virgin, Emirates, American Airlines, Delta, and British Airways.
According to the Unite statement, workers have rejected a salary offer “below inflation of 10.1%”, which in 2022 exceeded 11% in the United Kingdom. In this sense, they denounce the treatment they received from the company during the pandemic, which used a “fire and rehire” strategy. On the other hand, they affirm that since 2017 the average remuneration of airport employees has fallen by 24% in real terms.
“HAL has all the wrong priorities. This is an incredibly rich company, which this summer anticipates windfall profits and a salary bonus for executives. It is also expected to pay large dividends to shareholders, and yet their workers can barely make ends meet and are paid much less than those at other airports,” said the union’s general secretary, Sharon Graham.
Several of the dates scheduled for the strikes coincide with days of great influx of travelers, such as the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha (from June 28 to 30), the start of school holidays (from July 21 to 24) and a holiday in August (from August 24 to 27).
Source: RT
