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Brits could face holiday hell as unions threaten STRIKE at Heathrow with BA staff to vote on summer walkout
Jun
BRITS are bracing for holiday hell as British Airways staff threaten to STRIKE at Heathrow Airport this summer.
BA check-in and ground staff at the West London airport have voted in a GMB union strike ballot.
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Families with summer holiday plans are bracing for bad news – as workers are expected to vote in favour of strike action.
Results are set to be released today.
Meanwhile, members of the Unite union have balloted 500 BA check-in staff at the same airport in a vote which will close on Monday.
The strikes are protesting a 10 per cent cut in pay imposed on staff during the pandemic.
BA claim to have offered a 10 per cent payment to staff to compensate for earnings lost – but union bosses say this “one-off” fee is not enough.
They are calling for a full salary reimbursement instead.
The proposed summer walk-outs are the latest blow amid days of strike chaos, as Britain’s railways grinded to a miserable halt again today.
And it could get worse, as fears militant unions are already drawing up plans for a crippling second wave of strikes in just two weeks.
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Talks between the hardline RMT and Network Rail to avert today’s walkout collapsed in acrimony last night.
And in airports, travellers are already feeling the strain of a wide-spread staffing crisis.
Passengers have been devastated by last-minute flight cancellations, huge queues and lost baggage as airports struggle to cope.
EasyJet airline reportedly plans to cut almost 10,000 MORE flights.
The cancellations – which are likely to include flights to holiday hotspots like Greece and Spain – will take place during July, August and September.
It has already scrapped seven per cent of the 16,000 journeys it is expected to run between July and September.
Earlier this week, more than 15,000 passengers were left in the lurch after Heathrow Airport cancelled ten per cent of its plane journeys.
It comes as:
Photos taken at airports up and down the country have shown holiday hopefuls spread out across the floors with bags piling up in the travel carnage.
And leaders in the industry said it was unlikely the summer was going to get any better.
When asked if things will improve, Oliver Richardson, Unite National Officer for Civil Air Transport, said: “Unless we work together, no.”
This was echoed by Swissport’s Managing Director Jude Winstanley, along with Airline Operators Association Chief Executive Karen Dee.
Mr Richardson said there was a “correlation” between airlines that made large job cuts during the pandemic and those cancelling the most flights right now.
British Airways made around 10,000 staff redundant, followed by easyJet who axed 2,000.
Both airlines have had the most cancellations.
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