Staff Strikes at London's Heathrow Averted After Union Talks

April 2, 2021

Potentially paralysing staff strikes at London's Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest in the world, have been called off after progress was made between the unions and employers.

Unite the Union said it had come to an agreement on Thursday over pay and working conditions for its members following "extensive negotiations" with Heathrow bosses.

The offer, which includes pay rises and review of working hours, will be voted on by members later this month and is being recommended by Unite.

Staff - consisting of engineers, airside and landside operations, fire service, campus security and central terminal operations - were due to start 41 separate strikes across 24 days from Friday.

Nine days of strikes have already taken place.

Earlier on Thursday, passport control workers in a separate union confirmed they had cancelled their planned week-long strike.

Around 450 workers, who are members of the Public and Commercial Services union, were due to strike from Thursday to Wednesday over disagreements related to a new work roster.

The union said the changes to the employees' work patterns, which were imposed by Britain's Home Office in response to coronavirus safety measures, were implemented without consulting the union.

But it confirmed the strike had been suspended following "recent positive talks with the employer and a number of concessions made formally to PCS."

"On Friday (26 March) afternoon we received a letter from the Border Force chief operating officer suggesting that Border Force and the trade unions work together to develop options for a new roster which will then be put to members," a statement from the union said.

"Two well-attended members’ meetings voted to suspend strike action to allow negotiations to take place around developing a new roster that will include flexibilities, specifically unlimited head-to-head swaps, the facility for staff to request shifts and the removal of the current 0000hrs shift start."

Since March 24, workers have been undertaking industrial action in response to the new rosters.

Passport control workers have been "working to rule," which means they have not been undertaking any over time for the past few weeks.

Travellers could still land at the airport, one of the busiest in the world, but immigration controls were taking significantly longer.

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