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Passengers queue inside Heathrow Airport in London, which will be affected by strikes. Photo: Reuters

Travel chaos: US, UK airport strikes expected to affect holiday travel period

  • About 350 ground-handling staff will strike from December 16, which will affect three terminals at London’s Heathrow – the UK’s and Europe’s busiest airport
  • In the US, airport service workers are gearing up for a day of action on December 8, which could affect 15 cities, including Chicago, New York, and Seattle
Britain

Families flying in and out of the UK for Christmas face strikes at London’s Heathrow airport, with baggage handlers set to walk out for three days just as the end of school terms trigger a mass exodus via the major international hub.

About 350 staff at Menzies Aviation, which provides ground-handling services for carriers including American Airlines and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, will strike from December 16, the Unite union said in a statement Friday. The action will affect three Heathrow terminals as workers push for a pay rise.

Unite said passengers face “disruption, delays and potentially cancellations,” though an earlier strike at Menzies over three days last month had little impact, according to airlines and Heathrow. That’s after the firm reached an outline deal with the GMB union representing the bulk of its handlers.

The UK has been hit by a wave of strikes as labour groups campaign for pay deals matching inflation, with further action planned by rail, postal and health workers every day in the run up to Christmas. Unite says Menzies handlers haven’t received a 9.5 per cent raise promised to the firm’s cargo workers at Heathrow.

The airport said in a statement that it’s aware of the industrial action at Menzies and is encouraging affected parties to continue with their contingency planning to minimise the impact on passengers.

British Airways in ‘summer of strikes’ at London’s Heathrow

In the United States, airport service workers are gearing up for a day of action on December 8, when they will be rallying, picketing, and marching to demand better conditions on the job.

The action could affect 15 cities, including Chicago, New York, and Seattle – which host some of the busiest airports in the country and the world. Airport service workers, such as janitors, security guards, and baggage handlers, will call on Congress to pass the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act.

That legislation, introduced by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey over the summer, would ensure that any airport that receives project grants must pay their airport service workers a minimum of S$15 or the area’s prevailing wage and stronger benefits.

“Airport service workers all across this country help make our airports run. They are paid poverty wages, and it’s been poverty wages for the past 20 years, and it’s overwhelmingly workers of colour who are often paid the lowest,” Mary Kay Henry, president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), told Insider. “Because service workers are fed up with business as usual, they’re demanding that Congress take action to ensure that they have a fair shot.”

The action comes as service workers across the country demand better from employers, especially under increasingly difficult circumstances. Passenger violence on airlines went up as travellers returned after covid-19. Early retirement and pandemic layoffs – coupled with burnout over conditions – led to staffing shortages. All of that culminated in chaos.

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