... in response to Is there a New's Artical?
?n/t, posted by TomTx on Nov 8, 2002From my morning news clips at work:
LONDON (Reuters) - Firemen and security guards at seven of Britain's main airports voted Thursday to go on strike unless a pay
offer was improved, threatening what the union said was major disruption and possible closures.
"Stewards will meet Monday to discuss details, but there will be strikes unless the pay offer is improved and they will cause massive
disruption at the very least," a spokeswoman for the Transport and General Workers Union told Reuters.
"The workload has grown since since September 11, 2001, and the pay offer does not recognize this fact," she said.
"Our members justifiably feel that the pay offer falls short of what they deserve," the union said in a statement without giving details
of what it considered a fair deal.
Security has been stepped up at airports around the world since the hijacked plane attacks on U.S. cities.
The Civil Aviation Authority said the airports, which include Heathrow and Gatwick, would close if there were no firemen and
skeleton fire crews would restrict the size and type of aircraft able to land or take off.
"If you haven't got any firemen at all, you can't operate under CAA license conditions," a CAA spokesman told Reuters.
The airport strikes are not connected with the impending national strike action by the fire brigades union.
BAA Plc owns and operates the seven airports and its share price was down 1.7 percent in a flat market, while British Airways Plc,
a major customer, were down 6 percent.
Shares in budget airlines easyJet Plc and Ryanair Holdings Plc were also weaker. A series of one day stoppages would drag down
the revenues of the airlines.
The transport ministry, responsible for airport security regulation, said it would issue a statement later Thursday.
The union spokeswoman said the strike vote had been by a margin of 2-to-1 after the firemen, security guards and terminal support
staff rejected a pay offer $235.5 and 1.7 percent backdated to April 2002.
A spokesman for BAA said the threatened strike action involved some 2,000 staff spread across Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted,
Southampton, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
"We will be holding further discussions to seek to resolve the issue," he said.
He declined to speculate on the potential impact of strikes on the operation of the airports, but said contingency plans were in place.
