Strike threat at Glasgow Airport

Published on Wednesday 6 August 2003 01:00

BRITISH Airways passengers face further disruption amid fears engineers based at Scotland’s largest airport could take wildcat strike action if talks on a new pay and conditions deal continue to falter.

Union sources say unofficial action cannot be ruled out at Glasgow Airport.

Such a walkout could ground many aircraft north of the Border, bringing travel chaos to tens of thousands of people.

During a long weekend last month, 80,000 passengers were stranded at airports across the country after BA check-in staff at Heathrow walked out in a strike believed to have cost the firm more than 40 million.

The strike came after the ground staff objected to the introduction of electronic clocking in cards, a move the unions feared would be used to force changes to work patterns and reduce flexibility and overtime pay.

That dispute was only resolved after BA offered a backdated pay rise and agreed to delay the introduction of the cards until September.

The Scotsman understands BA aircraft engineers are becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress made by the unions over their own deal.

Leaders of Amicus, the TGWU and the GMB unions will today meet BA executives to resume talks on pay and conditions for 7,000 engineers based mainly at Heathrow, Gatwick, Glasgow and Manchester airports.

A survey by Amicus, the union that represents most of BA’s engineers, suggested that 97 per cent of its members were opposed to the new swipe system in the long term and were not satisfied with the improved pay offer on the table.

Bob Shannon, a national officer with Amicus, recently said the decision to go for a strike ballot would "certainly increase the pressure on the company to rethink its position".

Last week, it was thought the engineers were to be balloted officially on industrial action after talks collapsed, but Rod Eddington, the chief executive of BA, stepped into the row and agreed to meet all three unions involved in the dispute.

Last night, a union source in Glasgow said: "The perceived success of the walkout by ground staff [at Heathrow] has got a lot of the engineers thinking. As it is, we have to wait for a combined agreement between the GMB, Amicus, the TGWU and British Airways.

"There also seems to be a great deal of internal debate within the unions themselves about how to deal with this issue, but the feeling on the ground is that time is running out. Talks have already broken down before and now they are up and running again they need to be successful."

Sir Bill Morris, the general secretary of the TGWU, claims his members are anxious to avoid a catastrophe for the airline. However, the GMB, is thought to be taking a harder line.

Patrick O’Keeffe, the national secretary for civil aviation at the TGWU, said there had been "positive progress" in the talks and the union leaders are firmly against militant action by their members.

A spokesman for BA said: "There is no indication of a walkout whatsoever and talks are continuing to make progress."

The fall-out from any further dispute would hit Britain’s biggest airline hard.

Recovering slowly from the devastating financial impact of the 11 September terrorist attacks and a global economic slowdown, BA has openly admitted that the strike had so far cost "tens of millions" of pounds, while shares in the company have dropped.