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Airport staff in pre-Christmas strike | Airport staff in pre-Christmas strike |
(35 minutes later) | |
Check-in staff, baggage handlers and cargo crew at UK airports plan a 48-hour strike from 23 December, the Unite Union says. | |
The union said more than 1,500 workers at Swissport, the world's largest ground and cargo handler, would walk out following a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. | |
Unite called on management to take part in "constructive talks". | Unite called on management to take part in "constructive talks". |
It said the action, which will hit Christmas travel, was "a last resort". | It said the action, which will hit Christmas travel, was "a last resort". |
Swissport is one of several companies providing ground-staff services across the UK. | |
According to Unite, members voted by 62.5% to reject a 4.65% three-year pay deal for 2015-2017, which the union argues "barely" keeps pace with inflation. | |
It said workers were also angry that "detrimental" changes to terms and conditions had been linked to the pay deal. | |
Are we facing a Christmas of Discontent? | |
These included freezing overtime payments for the foreseeable future and restructuring pay. | |
Unite's national officer for civil air transport, Oliver Richardson, said: "Our members are only taking this industrial action as a last resort in a bid to reach a fair settlement - our members have not had a pay rise since 2014. | |
"When you break down the headline figures - 1% in 2015, 1.25% in 2016 and 2.4% in 2017 - they are barely keeping up with inflation." | |
Unite called for talks with the conciliation service Acas to resolve the dispute. | |
According to its website, Swissport is the world's largest provider of ground and cargo handling services in the aviation industry. | |
It caters for around 230 million passengers and 3.9 million flights per year. |