Heathrow, meanwhile, said in a statement on Friday that the airport is “operating normally”. BEN STANSALL
The British airport had renegotiated the salaries of its employees in 2022, paying, as a bonus, a bonus of 2,000 pounds.
Some 1,400 security guards will strike for ten days in the middle of the Easter holiday at London’s main airport, Heathrow.hubin the UK, after pay talks between management and the Unite union broke down. The strike starts on Friday,last-minute negotiations broke down” on “Heathrow’s refusal to substantially improve its pay offer“Said Unite in a press release dated Thursday evening.
The union denounces in comparison “the remuneration of the managing director John Holland-Kaye“which passed”between 2020 and 2021 from 800,000 pounds to 1.5 million pounds“while the real salary of a security guard”who does endless shifts is 30,000 poundsper year, i.e. one24% decline in real terms since 2017».
Heathrow, meanwhile, said in a statement on Friday that the airport “works normally“, with “1,000 additional employees and a full management team at the terminals to help passengersduring the busy Easter period. “We know that the majority of our employees do not support the strikesays the airport statement, which argues that Unite hasagain refused an improved offer when the PCS union approved it».
Read alsoBritish Airways cancels hundreds of flights ahead of Heathrow strike
Heathrow had already raised wages last year
The airport says its proposal would allow employees to receive a pay rise of more than 10%, retroactive to January 1, in addition to a one-time bonus of £1,150. Heathrow recalls having already increased wages by 4% last year and then also paid a £2,000 bonus.
British Airways, of which Heathrow is the base, canceled several hundred flights in anticipation of the walkout. A total of 32 flights departing or arriving from the main “hub” London will be canceled each day, or 5% of the journeys made by the company at Heathrow, during the Easter holidays. The measure will not affect long-haul flights. The airport had already suffered, in the spring of last year and again during the summer holidays, from strikes and a shortage of staff which resulted in endless queues, delays, baggage handling problems and cancellations. of flights.
As the sector struggled to absorb the recovery in demand, Heathrow also had to cap the number of passengers passing through its facilities each day. The United Kingdom has been rocked for months by repeated strikes in many sectors for better wages in the face of price increases that exceed 10%.
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