Around 700 British Airways (BA) staff at the giant Heathrow airport in London supported the strike in a vote. Start and end dates will be announced within the next few days, and the strike is expected to have a major impact on travel with canceled flights as a result, reports BBC.
The employees concerned – who mostly work with checking in travelers – are dissatisfied with the fact that the previous wage reduction of 10 percent during the pandemic has not been restored.
– It’s not too late to save the summer holidays. Other BA workers have had their pay cuts restored, do the same for ground and check-in staff and this industrial action could be stifled, says Nadine Houghton of the GMB union to the BBC.
The strike affects less than 50 percent of British Airways’ employees with customer-friendly jobs at Heathrow.
The British government is urging the two unions GMB and Unite as well as BA’s management to reach a settlement. The government says in a statement that a strike “would only aggravate the misery of the passengers”.
Heathrow is Europe’s busiest airport.