By James Simons-
U.K airport strikes involving Swissport and Heathrow Airport, puts shame on their pay masters.
These money makers in executive positions should hide their face in shame! They are big messers, not big players.
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 strike is over unsatisfactory pay deals, with members of unite voting by a wide margin of 62.5% to reject a 4.6% three year pay dea; for 2015-2017- a rate the union claims barely keeps pace with inflation.
Workers are also fuming that detrimental changes to terms and conditions have been linked to the pay deal.Overtime payments are said to have been frozen for the foreseeable future, and pay has also been restructured.
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Over 1,500 workers at Swissport, which is the world’s largest ground and cargo handler, will be going on strike following a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
The strike action will hit Christmas travel in what is being seen as “a last resort”.
However, with airport chiefs claiming the strike will have minimal impact on passengers, there might not be enough of an impact to achieve the full aim of the strike.
U.K airports are normally one of the most efficient in the world, but they have suffered strikes from time to time. It looks terrible for their pay masters and owners. The fact the disruption may impact passengers minimally does not change the fact that they will still suffer unwanted disruption. Minimal disruption can have maximum effect on other areas or plans passengers may have where they are travelling to.
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Travel disruption of any kind is not something passengers like, so the strike will have some level of effect especially a sit is happening during the christmas period.
A number of airports will be affected. Airlines in many aprts of the country including Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, Newcastle, Heathrow, Stansted and Manchester airports, all employ Swissport staff.
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 have called for talks with the conciliation service Acas to resolve the dispute. Acas need to move in quick to resolve the dispute, it looks really bad on organisations when their staff are unhappy with wage conditions.
Only recently, Amazon was under fire for its appalling treatment of its workers, many of whom were sleeping rough i order to save travelling costs to go to work.
It is a smear on the reputstion on Acas, just like Amazon’s reputation tool a big blow following the revelation that their workers were being slaved despite billions of pounds being invested into the company.
Company’s that fail to conduct their business with dignity bring their reputation to disrepute, and show themselves to lack the respect their company names seek to establish.Birmingham prisoners today conducted a massive riot over poor conditions that include a shortage of staff and lack of hot water among others things. Yet, it is a privately run prison- their owners should hide their face in shame!
Swissport is the world’s largest provider of ground and cargo handling services in the aviation industry, catering for over 200 million passengers and 3.9 million flights per year. In a separate dispute, about 2,000 British Airways cabin crew voted for strikes at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday in a separate dispute over pay and conditions.
Shame on their pay masters, they have no excuse for failing to look after their staff, with all the money flowing in and out of their business.
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