The upcoming summer season is likely to see travel chaos for British holidaymakers as over 2,000 security guards at Heathrow airport are set to go on strike. The Unite union reported that their members, working at the largest airport in the UK, will be walking out for 31 days from June 24 due to their demand for a pay increase of over double digits. After a long-standing industrial dispute, workers from Terminal Three will join their colleagues from Terminal Five, where British Airways flies. The walkout is expected to delay, disrupt, and potentially even cancel several flights, and this risk might affect family travel plans during the first weekend of the summer school holidays, which begin on July 24.
According to Wayne King, Unite’s regional coordinating officer: “Delays, disruption, and cancellations will be inevitable as a result of the strike action. But this dispute is completely of [Heathrow’s] own making. The company has been given numerous opportunities to make an offer that meets our members’ expectations and so avoid another period of damaging strike action. Sadly, [Heathrow] has stubbornly refused to take this opportunity.”
The strike comes after Unite’s members rejected a 10.1% pay rise, which they found to be below the inflation rate of 11.4%, as measured by the retail prices index. Despite the potential disruption to travel, Heathrow maintains that there would be “very little changes” from previous rounds of strikes that have had limited impact on disruption.
