British Airways staff at Heathrow airport voted on Thursday to strike over pay as most of Britain’s trains were halted by industrial action for a second day. Some 95 per cent of British Airways Heathrow staff voted to strike after the airline refused to restore a 10 per cent pay cut imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.
The GMB union said Heathrow would face a summer of strikes, adding to the delays and disruption caused by staff shortages after airlines laid off staff during the pandemic. The union said that senior management were back on their pre-pandemic salaries but lower-paid ground staff and baggage handlers were not.
“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,” GMB national officer Nadine Houghton said.
British prime minister Boris Johnson on Thursday called on 40,000 striking rail workers to end their strikes, which will resume for a third day on Saturday unless there is a resolution. Speaking in Rwanda where he is attending a Commonwealth summit, Mr Johnson said the strikes were unnecessary.
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“To have a great future for rail, for railway workers and their families, we have got to have some sensible reforms and that is things like reforming ticket offices – I did a huge amount of that when I was running London,” he said. “It is stuff that maybe the union barons are more attached to perhaps than their workers. I think the strikes are a terrible idea.”
The RMT union and train operating firms have continued to meet during the strike in an effort to resolve their differences over the rail workers’ demand for a pay increase and the companies’ refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies. Although no further strike days are scheduled after Saturday, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said there could be more action unless a deal is reached.
“We’ll continue to talk to the companies about everything that’s been put on the table, and we’ll review that and see if and when there needs to be a new phase of industrial action,” he told the BBC. “But if we don’t get a settlement, it’s extremely likely that there will be.”
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the government would legislate to allow temporary agency workers to replace striking staff, a move unions say will poison industrial relations and endanger safety.
Mr Kwarteng said the change was necessary to prevent unions from holding the country to ransom. “Repealing these 1970s-era restrictions will give businesses freedom to access fully skilled staff at speed, all while allowing people to get on with their lives uninterrupted to help keep the economy ticking,” he said.
Trade Union Congress general secretary Frances O’Grady accused the government of cynically picking a fight ,and she warned that agency staff would be put in “an appalling and impossible situation”.
