THE Unite union announced two ground strikes at the airport of London-Gatwickfrom July 28 to August 1 and then from August 4 to 8, the work stoppage of a thousand ground employees leading to flight cancellations and delays during this period of returns and departures on vacation.
This eight-day strike for the wages of approximately 950 union members will affect ramp, handling, or check-in agents, and “given the scale of the action, disruptions, delays and cancellations are inevitable,” Unite said in its statement dated July 14, 2023.
This strike will only worsen the situation at Gatwick, where most of the 1,700 flights canceled preventively this summer by the low cost easyJet take off or land. And she won’t be the only one affected: British Airways, Ryanair, TUI Airways, Wizz Air Or WestJet among others will see their operations disrupted.
Unite justified its decision by the lack of evolution of the wages : during the Covid-19 pandemic, “many companies at Gatwick Airport have carried out large-scale redundancies and reduced pay and working conditions for the remaining staff”, with the majority of workers being paid on average less than 12 books per hour “despite very demanding and safety-critical positions”, underlines its press release.
The union assures that it has not received responses “meeting the expectations of the workers” from these companies despite six months of negotiations, while the UK is experiencing multiple social crises due to inflation. London Gatwick Airport will “support airlines” with their contingency plans to ensure flights “run as planned”.
“The last 20 months have shown that action at the workplace has delivered for our members. Since then, we have had over 890 disputes, covering over 170,000 Unite members, over 80% already won. £400 million into the pockets of our members.” @UniteSharon
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— Unite the union: join a union (@unitetheunion) July 12, 2023
