UK airport strikes called off

Threatened strikes at Gatwick Airport, Manchester Airport and Stansted Airport that could have ruined the bank holiday weekend for millions of travellers have been called off.

Unite, the union representing baggage handlers and check-in staff who were planning to strike over pay, said that the action was suspended pending a ballot on a new offer from Swissport.

The strikes had been scheduled to take place on August 25th and 29th, and also on August 27th and September 1st at Manchester Airport, but these have also been cancelled.

If it had gone ahead, the action could have affected services provided by Virgin Atlantic and a number of other major airlines.

However, Stansted Airport could still see disruption on bank holiday Monday as a result of a separate strike involving security scanners who belong to the GMB union.

The union said that a pay rise offer of 1.5 per cent from Airfield Services, the scanning workers' employer, was inadequate and demanded an increase amounting to 21p per hour.

Gary Pearce of the union said: "GMB has had no approach from the company so it looks to me that Airfield Services are happy to see disruption of the travelling public on Monday to save this amount of money to low-paid, vital workers who should have had their pay rise on January 1st this year."

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