Strikes of baggage handlers and check-in staff at Gatwick

[sn26567]

Two 24-hour stoppages are pencilled in for Bank Holiday Monday August 25 and the following Friday, August 29. Carriers that would be affected include Air Malta, Air Transat, Oman Air, K D Avia, TAP Air Portugal, and Virgin Nigeria. Any action will not affect British Airways, which has its own handling operation at Gatwick.

The dispute involves baggage handlers and check-in staff employed by Swissport, who have rejected a 3% pay offer and plans to axe their sick pay for the first three days of absence, including that resulting from industrial injury. 318 Swissport employees voted 72% in favour of industrial action. They are asking for a 5% rise with no conditions.

Workers at Stansted were awaiting results of a similar ballot on Friday, while those at Manchester were due to vote on Monday. More ballots will take place throughout the coming week at Birmingham and Newcastle airports.

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Personal note: It appears that other airport than Brussels can be affected by strikes, but in Gatwick at least there is a one week notice, so that airlines and travelers alike can make alternative plans.

[Air Key West]

In connection with the recent Aviapartner/Flightcare strikes at BRU, weren't there a number of people here saying we (in Belgium) had the worst record in Europe with regards to strikes at (expecially) BRU ? There are strikes everywhere : recent LH strikes, now Swissport workers at LGW. Others will follow (also outside of Belgium). It's really not a BRU speciality. Open your eyes.

[Comet]

Welcome to the typical British summer. If it's not airport staff it's trains, if it's not trains it's the London Underground. They do it every year without fail. No wonder angry passengers start threatening them.

[LX-LGX]

In connection with the recent Aviapartner/Flightcare strikes at BRU, weren't there a number of people here saying we (in Belgium) had the worst record in Europe with regards to strikes at (expecially) BRU ? There are strikes everywhere : recent LH strikes, now Swissport workers at LGW. Others will follow (also outside of Belgium). It's really not a BRU speciality. Open your eyes.

Indeed: I've said that. BRU had 25 strikes in the last 10 years - many of them for silly reasons, like the strike for the one Maaltijdcheque / Cheque Repas.

Source: Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws
http://tinyurl.com/6362y4

[Air Key West]

Either you're so well paid that you don't need meal vouchers, or you don't get them and you are envious. Anyway, to people with low wages and poor working conditions, a few extra meal vouchers can mean a lot over a period of one year, for instance. But this is something you don't seem to be able to understand. The only thing your brains seem to able to do is workers and union bashing. Try to think a little further. That would be helpful instead of voicing repeatedly the same irrelevant criticisms.

[Stij]

Either you're so well paid that you don't need meal vouchers, or you don't get them and you are envious. Anyway, to people with low wages and poor working conditions, a few extra meal vouchers can mean a lot over a period of one year, for instance. But this is something you don't seem to be able to understand. The only thing your brains seem to able to do is workers and union bashing. Try to think a little further. That would be helpful instead of voicing repeatedly the same irrelevant criticisms.

So according to you it is very logic and normal that on avarage every 5 months traffic at BRU is disrupted by social actions, a major part of them wild cat (compared to a one week notice at LGW or at LH, allowing airlines to take measures to reroute/rebook passengers?)

Don't get me wrong: it's everybody's right to strike, but one can exagerate. In comlex, connected organisations like aviation and railways, were just a small part of the total group of emplyees can block the complete operations, the unions have a tendency to strike pretty fast. IMHO they abuse the power they have. In less complex organisations were strikes don't "hurt" as much unions tend to strike less. Just a coincidence??? I don't think so!

Cheers,

Stij

[Air Key West]

If workers strike, it means something is very wrong. Workers don't strike for pleasure. You have a point about advance notice. But if there is so seldom an advance notice at BRU, it's probably because of the low unionisation rate among BRU employees in general. Don't most companies like Aviapartner, Flightcare and b.air discourage unionisation ? Just asking a question, but I think they do. Low unionisation means more wild cat strikes, because unions cannot step in in time to prevent a wild cat strike and give advance notice on behalf of the workers. The unions are also taken by surprise by these wild cat strikes, because they have so few members. I know many people see unions as an evil. If you deal properly with them (and your workers), they can become an asset in social relations, as it has often been the case in Scandinavia (but there you also have the usual exception : the many strikes at SK in recent times : it all goes to show, something is very wrong in the airline industry, today, in general).

[regi]

It all fits in the larger picture of general dissatisfaction caused by lower purchasing power, stress, managers who get bonusses depending on higher performance , unused holidays, a lot of things.
I can not agree that Belgian companies have a kind of policy against unions. This idea can live amongst younger managers who see unions as a threat ( to their bonusses ) But the general managment is aware about the fact that unions do play an intermediating role .
Let us not forget that the people who are on strike are normally working. They go to their job, do what they have to do, earn a living and pay taxes. They are not a group of lazy, unemployed, profiteering anarchists who look forward to bring down the aviation industry.
But I am surprised that you say that the unions are not well presented among airport workers.
First of all, I doubt your statement.( Employees who are not unionised are too afraid to go on strike. )
But if it would be true, I can see only 1 reason: that the airport workers are a kind of people who do not want to be engaged , recognised as a union member - and pay their contributions. The cause of this mentality could be that they consider that job as temporarely, sent by a job agency.

Anyway, I do feel relaxed now that other airport workers go on strike as well. As long as we still can use the expression: "the Brittish disease" instead of "The Belgian virus" , all is fine for me. ( well, if I am not a victim of those wild cat strikes of course )

[EBBR]

I said it before! A strike warning from flightcare was issued in june/july. So everybody was warned!

[Air Key West]

OK, the Fightcare strike was not a wild cat strike, but what about Aviapartner ?
I agree with you, Regi, the problem is also that younger workers do not feel the need to become members of a union, which is wrong, since unions have a specific function in industrial relations. Employees who are no unionised may be afraid of going on strike, but then, when things (working conditions, for instance) get really bad, they may resort to wild unreasoned actions. And of course, most (young) managers today will by all means avoid that their workers get unionised. It's part of the new management culture. Both side can take the blame when things get out of hand because there is no intermediary to negotiate with. And there are also all kinds of unions, the one that are reasonable, the ones that are not. Same goes for employers. The world is not perfect and never will be.