London’s Heathrow Airport is set to experience 10 days of strikes over the Easter break as more than 1,400 security guards, engineers and firefighters employed by the airport, demand better pay.
Swindon-based Premium Cruises and Tours are reporting that the strikes, scheduled from March 31st to Easter Sunday, April 9th, will coincide with the two-week Easter school holidays, a peak travel time in the UK.
The cost-of-living crisis, which has affected millions of Britons, has forced the workers to strike despite Heathrow’s 10% pay increase offer.
The union claims that the offered pay rise is in effect a pay cut, with the real rate of inflation currently standing at 13.4 per cent.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Heathrow Airport is guilty of gross hypocrisy, it is paying telephone number salaries to its chief executive and senior managers, but the workers who make the company a success are on poverty wages.
“Unite never takes a backward step when fighting for its members’, jobs, pay and conditions and our members at Heathrow Airport will receive the union’s complete support.”
The strikes are the latest in a series of nationwide walkouts by teachers, doctors, healthcare workers, train and bus drivers, and civil servants demanding higher wages.
While Heathrow has contingency plans to keep the airport open and operational, it criticised the strike, stating that it would not improve the deal for workers.
