TENS of thousands of festive travellers are facing the prospect of holiday misery after unions announced a series of strikes at Scotland’s three biggest airports in the days running up to Christmas.
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen are among 18 UK airports targeted by the Unite union as more than 1500 check-in staff, baggage handlers and cargo crew stage a 48-hour walk-out in the runup the December 25.
The industrial action has been triggered by a long-running pay dispute.
Members of Unite employed by Swissport will walk out on December 23 and 24 at other airports including Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Doncaster, East Midlands, Gatwick, Heathrow, Leeds/ Bradford, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, Southampton and Stansted.
Sources said the strike could have a major impact on dozens of internal flights and those to and from the UK at one of the busiest two days of the year.
As well as people travelling home for the festive period, Christmas remains one of the most popular times for family holidays and breaks.
The three Scots airports were seeking talks with Swissport over numbers of staff at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen and how many are union members.
Swissport is one of several companies providing ground-staff services across the UK.
Although there are no precise recent figures for passenger numbers on December 23 and 24, Glasgow last year predicted around 247,000 would pass through the airport between December 21 and January 3.
In December 2015 more than 750,000 passengers passed through Edinburgh Airport.
According to Unite, members voted by 62.5 per cent to reject a 4.65 per cent three-year pay deal for 2015-2017, which the union argues “barely” keeps pace with inflation.
The staff were also said to be angry that detrimental changes to terms and conditions have been linked to the pay deal.
The changes include freezing overtime payments for the foreseeable future and restructuring pay.
Unite national officer Oliver Richardson said: “We appreciate this is a very busy time of year at the UK’s airports and that’s why we are calling for the company to engage in constructive talks under the auspices of Acas to resolve this dispute. Unite’s door is open 24/7 for such talks.
“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.”
Spokesmen for the three airports said they would work with the airlines to support contingency plans and offer advice to passengers once they knew the possible impact.
British Airways cabin crew are also going on strike on Christmas Day and Boxing Day in a row over pay.
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