Heathrow strike: Thousands of workers set to walk out, union announces

Unite has accused Heathrow of planning to “fire and rehire” its workforce

Thousands of workers at Heathrow Airport are to stage a series of strikes in the coming weeks in a long running dispute over pay and conditions.

Unite said a total of 41 strikes will be held from April 2-23 involving a range of airport employees such as security staff and firefighters.

The union has accused Heathrow of planning to “fire and rehire” its entire workforce, something Unite general secretary Len McCluskey has branded a “disgraceful practice.”

Heathrow today said the strikes “unnecessarily threaten further damage to the business” and said frontline colleagues had accepted a new pay offer “above the market rate and London Living wage. “

The aviation industry has been hit hard by coronavirus with passenger numbers at Heathrow slumping to their lowest level since 1966. In February just 461,000 passengers arrived or departed the airport.

Heathrow has blamed the plummeting passenger numbers on limitations on “all but essential travel”, as well as “blanket quarantine, pre-departure and post-arrival testing”.

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Union chief Mr McCluskey said: “Fire and rehire is ripping through our workplaces like a disease.

“Weak law lets bad bosses force through brutal changes to contracts, sometimes taking thousands of pounds off wages that families need to get by.

“It’s a disgraceful practice that’s outlawed in much of Europe and should be here.

“Unite is fighting for UK workers to be treated with the same decency. We won’t stop until the law is changed to protect working people from attack.”

The industrial action started last December and has continued this year.

Unite officer Wayne King said: “These strike days are avoidable, yet Heathrow is not listening. Heathrow Airport Ltd (HAL) railroaded these pay cuts through at a staggering speed, leaving thousands of workers on less pay just before Christmas.

“But while Unite put forward clear proposals in February to resolve the dispute, the company has yet to give any kind of formal response.”

A Heathrow spokesperson told The Independent: “Every frontline colleague has accepted the new offer which pays above the market rate and London Living wage. Nobody has been fired and re-hired and indeed 48% saw no change or experienced a pay increase.

“In addition, we have also launched a business recovery incentive payment to all colleagues which offers a renumeration reward if the airport has recovered sufficiently in two years’ time.

“Despite losses of over £2bn since the start of the pandemic, our approach has protected jobs and avoided huge swathes of compulsory redundancies.

“These strikes unnecessarily threaten further damage to the business, but nevertheless, we have activated extensive contingency plans which will keep the airport open and operating safely over strike days.”