British Airways (BA) staff based at Heathrow have voted to go on strike after members of the GMB and Unite unions backed industrial action. Workers, including check-in staff, will now decide on strike dates, which the unions said were likely to be held during the peak summer holiday period.
Nadine Houghton, GMB national officer, said holidaymakers were likely to face "massive disruption thanks to the pig-headedness of British Airways ". She added: "BA have tried to offer our members crumbs from the table in the form of a 10% one-off bonus payment, but this doesn't cut the mustard."
She further said GMB members at Heathrow had suffered "untold abuse" as they dealt with travel chaos caused by staff shortages and IT failures. Ms Houghton added: "At the same time, they've had their pay slashed during BA's callous fire and rehire policy. What did BA think was going to happen?"
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Unite officer Russ Ball said the problems BA was facing were "entirely of its own making", saying the firm "brutally cut jobs and pay during the pandemic even though the Government was paying them to save jobs". He added: "Strike action will inevitably cause severe disruption to BA's services at Heathrow.
"The company has a short window of opportunity to reinstate our members' pay before strikes are called. I urge BA not to squander that opportunity."
Members of the GMB voted by 91% in favour of industrial action while Unite said 94% of its members backed action. The news comes during the same week that strike action is causing chaos for train passengers as RMT union members stage walkouts over pay, jobs and conditions.
A BA statement said: "We're extremely disappointed with the result and that the unions have chosen to take this course of action. Despite the extremely challenging environment and losses of more than £4b, we made an offer of a 10% payment which was accepted by the majority of other colleagues.
"We are fully committed to work together to find a solution, because to deliver for our customers and rebuild our business we have to work as a team. We will of course keep our customers updated about what this means for them as the situation evolves."
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