Heathrow Terminal 5 security staff strike to disrupt British Airways flights for 10 days

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• Richster64 says:

  21 Mar21 March 14:06

  Can I ask – because I genuinely do not know the answer – where does the union think the money is going to come from to pay for the increased wages? This question is for the discussed strike action that this thread is about…

  … but more generally… for other strikes, where does the extra money come from? if ‘The Government’ is the reply, then where does that money come from? Increased taxes? Spending cuts? And how do those adjustments affect the strikers and the public?

  Not having taken Economics, I have no clue… but I am sure the answers will be interesting to discuss.

  • Numpty says:

    21 Mar21 March 15:11

    1400 staff, say they were offered an extra £3k per year, would be an extra £4.2M (plus employer NI contributions, pension costs etc.). They could cover that just in raising the parking charges (they used to raise over £120m per year from parking alone).

    I thought 10% was a decent offer (in terms of inflation uplift, rather than a discussion on low wages), my company gave 8% and we were quite happy with that, some of our competitors gave 6%.

    • Londonsteve says:

      21 Mar21 March 16:02

      Call it £5M. Sounds cheap to avert strikes at a very busy time of the year. I’d have thought it cheaper for BA to sign the cheque and make the problem go away than to have to clear up the operational mess at a time when flights are fully booked. Inflationary pay rises are the bare minimum low paid workers require as they’re hugely disproportionately affected by rising cost of housing, energy and food.

      As for where the money comes from, it’s paid by you and I and the airlines. Companies often complain they’ve got no money but they simply need to charge more or be more efficient, their choice. If they can’t generate enough revenue to pay their employees a decent wage, their business model is broken and it may be more appropriate that they don’t survive and better run entites come in to take their market share. Near zero interest rates have been keeping a flotilla of zombie companies afloat and their day of reckoning has now arrived.

      • JDB says:

        21 Mar21 March 16:14

        It’s for HAL, not BA to write the cheque and they are heavily constrained by regulation which also means they aren’t fully in control of the business model. Although airport charges represent a tiny proportion of tickets the regulator, egged on by the airlines, ensures passengers will get a sub optimal experience.

        It would also cost a lot more than £5m as any improved offer would have to be paid to everyone and can’t as suggested above be recovered from parking jobs. It will just mean fewer staff/jobs in the future.

  • Amy C says:

    21 Mar21 March 15:37

    In the case of the railway it would come mainly from the gigantic shareholder bonuses. The TOC’s wanted to negotiate with the unions but the government handcuffed them so they couldn’t.

    • JDB says:

      21 Mar21 March 16:19

      Of course the government ‘handcuffed’ the TOCs because since the pandemic it’s the government paying all the TOCs bills. Why would the government allow taxpayer money to be handed out by the TOCs; if you are a taxpayer, you ought to be horrified by the idea. When you mention shareholder ‘bonuses’ do you mean dividends? They are what will pay your pension and ISA returns. Absent reinvested dividends your pension will be very meagre.

  • Nototheentitled says:

    21 Mar21 March 15:47

    Exactly! These people are selfish and entitled most importantly they do know how things work. All they know is crying like a baby and cry louder when they are hit harder by salary price spiral

  • Ken says:

    22 Mar22 March 06:30

    Heathrow paid £4 billion in dividends to its shareholders between 2012 and 2020
    Four Billion.

    Each passenger pays £31.57 to fly through – one of the most expensive in the world.

    IT’s management spend more time and effort trying to pull the wool of regulators eyes and lobbying than actually running the airport.

    • Lady London says:

      22 Mar22 March 14:04

      Yes. Sadly the establishment has their own Kool-Aid that they drink.

• James Harper says:

  21 Mar21 March 16:58

  I recently paid £12.70 to park at LHR for 46 minutes, that is more than they pay their security staff an hour. There is something very wrong and very rotten going on at LHR and it needs an external audit and investigation. Security at LHR is never pleasant but it’s where I fly from most often. Last week, I had to fly from LGW after the ATC strike in Greece messed up my plans. I was amazed that passing through a UK airport could be a pleasant experience and that security staff could be polite.

  • LD27 says:

    21 Mar21 March 18:41

    Totally agree. Usually use LHR but used Gatwick Monday. A very quick and pleasant experience through security. Lounge was relaxed and not busy either.

• Greenpen says:

  21 Mar21 March 21:19

  Oh dear! Quite a lot of duplicity in this chat!

• Chris R says:

  22 Mar22 March 07:51

  These comments have been an entertaining read on the commute this morning

• yorkieflyer says:

  22 Mar22 March 20:10

  I am most intrigued by the happy smiling staff and customers in the pic heading this article. Where is this oasis? I’ll be off there like a shot

• Dev says:

  23 Mar23 March 08:16

  Gatters pays £37k on entry for someone prepared to work the most flexible shift pattern possible (rostered only 2 weeks in advance, night shifts, weekends, etc) whereas Heathrow pay £24k on entry. more terminals and more staff mean less opportunities to pick up “premium” shifts.

  For such a heavily regulated industry and responsibility, the wages on offer to airport security in the Uk (and worldwide) are terrible.

  You don’t need skills or education to apply but once your in, you are trained up through a rigorous and intensive programme set by the CAA, and then continuously monitored for rest of your career. Even the Stasi would be proud of the data that an airport has on the each staff member and their capability to detect and search.

  (Try identifying a bomb in less than 3/4 seconds on the screen, and then dont forget about guns, knives, sharps or anything else that could be used to hijack/destroy a plane!)

• rob(staaaar) says:

  23 Mar23 March 17:40

  Ok, so what’s the likelihood of a RETURNING BA long haul flight into T5 on the 3rd April getting affected? A diversion to T3 maybe?

• Old Git says:

  1 Apr1 April 07:36

  Putin will be laughing, he knows he is causing inflation in the “weak” West and that we no longer have the war spirit of WW2. Society pulled together then. We need to do that now which means govt and employers need to understand they can’t be too far below inflation on the lowest paid, and unions that they can’t match or beat inflation. Heading to T5 today…gulp

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