Heathrow workers to launch February strike action

Heathrow workers are to launch a wave of February strike action on Friday as part of a row over wages.

The airport says it will keep operating despite the walkout by workers, including baggage handlers and firefighters.

Heathrow said in September it would cut pay by 15% to 20% for about half of the 4,700 staff in engineering, airside operations and security.

But the Unite union says that most of those staff will be worse off.

A spokesman for the union said that some members were losing a quarter of their pay, with cuts of as much as £8,000.

Some workers are having to get rid of property and downsize, some are giving up their cars, and one couple has even had to stop IVF treatment because they were no longer able to afford it, the spokesman said.

Workers will strike on Friday 5 February, as well as on 9, 13, 16 and 18 February.

The union accused Heathrow of firing and rehiring "its entire workforce on vastly inferior wages and conditions".

While passenger numbers have slumped during the pandemic, the airport is still handling large volumes of freight, the Unite spokesman said.

The airport is plugging the gaps in its workforce with sub-contractors, agency workers and casual staff, but the union questioned the safety of those measures.

Heathrow, the UK's largest airport, said the coronavirus crisis had cost it more than £1.5bn as passengers numbers have been hit by lockdowns and restrictions.

In January, the airport said passenger numbers dropped by almost three-quarters in 2020.

However, Unite regional coordinating officer Wayne King said: "[Heathrow]'s motives from the outset have been all about greed and not about need. If this was linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on aviation, then cuts to pay would be temporary and not permanent."

"[Heathrow] has brutally stripped workers of their pay and left many of them unable to make ends meet."

A Heathrow spokesperson said: "Every frontline colleague has accepted the new offer which pays above the market rate and London living wage.

"Nobody has been fired and rehired and indeed, 48% saw no change or experienced a pay increase.

In addition, if the airport has recovered sufficiently in two years' time, there will be a "business recovery incentive payment" to all workers, the spokesperson said, adding that its approach had prevented "huge swathes of compulsory redundancies".

"These strikes unnecessarily threaten further damage to our business already facing a number of challenges, with virtually no support from government."

The dispute led to four days of strike action in December.