Airport staff in pre-Christmas strike

Check-in staff, baggage handlers and cargo crew at UK airports are planning a 48-hour strike from 23 December, the Unite union says.

The union said more than 1,500 workers at Swissport, the world's largest ground and cargo handler, would walk out following a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.

Unite called on management to take part in "constructive talks".

It said the action, which will hit Christmas travel, was "a last resort".

It is unclear exactly how many airports will be affected, but airlines at Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, Newcastle, Heathrow, Stansted and Manchester airports all employ Swissport staff.

A spokesman for MAG, owners of Manchester, Stansted, East Midlands and Bournemouth airports, said: "We are aware of this potential action and are contacting the airlines which use Swissport to understand their contingency plans to minimise any disruption were the strikes to go ahead."

A spokesman for airline Ryanair said: "All of our flights to and from the UK are scheduled to operate as normal.

"Should this action proceed, our flights may operate with hand-luggage only and we will update customers accordingly."

A Heathrow spokesman said they expected "minimal impact for passengers" from the action.

Swissport is one of several companies providing ground-staff services across the UK.

According to Unite, members voted by 62.5% to reject a 4.65% three-year pay deal for 2015-2017, which the union argues "barely" keeps pace with inflation.

It said workers were also angry that "detrimental" changes to terms and conditions had been linked to the pay deal.

Conditions included freezing overtime payments for the foreseeable future and restructuring pay.

Unite's national officer for civil air transport, Oliver Richardson, said: "Our members are only taking this industrial action as a last resort in a bid to reach a fair settlement - our members have not had a pay rise since 2014.

"When you break down the headline figures - 1% in 2015, 1.25% in 2016 and 2.4% in 2017 - they are barely keeping up with inflation."

Unite called for talks with the conciliation service Acas to resolve the dispute.

According to its website, Swissport is the world's largest provider of ground and cargo handling services in the aviation industry.

It caters for about 230 million passengers and 3.9 million flights per year.

About 2,000 British Airways cabin crew voted for strikes at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday in a separate dispute over pay and conditions.

The action could begin after 21 December but no dates have yet been confirmed.

Source: BBC