British airport chaos which was witnessed over the recent Easter holidays is set to be repeated during next week’s half-term school holidays and throughout the summer peak season due to chronic staff shortages that are of the airline industry’s “own making” warned a major union on Friday.
Airlines and airport operators have blamed recent staff shortages on time-consuming security and referencing checks that were being held up by government red tape but the Unite union says this excuse is just a “smokescreen”.
“The aftermath of mass sackings is now chronic staff shortages across the board. Aviation chiefs need to come clean with the public. This is a crisis of their making,” slammed Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham.
“We are determined that workers will not pay for this crisis. Current pay and conditions in the industry are so poor that workers are voting with their feet. It can only be resolved by offering higher wages and better working conditions for staff. Unite is utterly determined to fight for that,” Graham continued.
The Unite boss orchestrated a high-profile campaign against British Airways at the start of the pandemic when the airline used the crisis to slash pay and conditions for long-serving staff. Graham coined the phrase ‘fire and rehire’ to describe the tactic.
According to the union, industry exprts had warned airlines that they needed to start hiring staff much earlier. “The blame for the current chaos lies with the aviation bosses and their failure to see what was coming,” the union blasted.
Unite has pitted itself against a number of major aviation industry employers in recent months, threatening strike action should companies refuse to significantly hike up pay rates.
On Friday, it emerged the union had started a consultative ballot of every British Airways worker it represents, asking them whether they would support a strike over an alleged breach of a recent pay rise agreement.
Although the ballot is not a formal strike vote, it could preface a formal ballot that could see the airline brought to a standstill if a strike is authorised.
I guess with less airport workers means less union members paying their fees. Unite seems to be a dying union anyway isn’t it mired in corruption???