Security & Fire Strike at UK airports
 

BBC reporting that airport fire crews and security staff rejected a BAA 1.7% pay rise offer and have voted for strike action. Meeting Monday to plan any action.

see......
 

AIRPORT STAFF VOTE TO STRIKE

SEVEN UK airports are facing strike action following a ballot of BAA workers.

Members of the Transport and General Workers' Union have voted for the move, following a rejection of the latest pay offer from BAA.

Any strike would involve firefighters, security guards and operational support workers employed at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Tim Lyle, T&G national secretary for aviation, says: "There will be a union meeting of senior stewards next Monday to plan the industrial action."

He describes the vote as showing the staff's "sheer frustration at the company's offer, given the increased workloads and responsibilities following September 11th".

Mr Lyle says: "Coupled with the knowledge that traffic figures have improved and the company is in profit, our members justifiably feel that the pay offer falls short of what they deserve."

The voting figures are 65.44% in favour of strike action, and 34.56% against. Turnout in the ballot was 78%.

Looking at the 6 o'clock News [BBC1], the "London Fire Brigade" will provide cover:rolleyes: , but there are "Contingency Plans":confused:
Please, WIHIH????
we aim to please, it keeps the cleaners happy

Good luck everyone !

not sure if London Fire Brigade have the necessary training.

Still, got a better deal then Security who work for Manchester Airport.

40% pay cuts (£8,000-£12,000)
New health threatening rosters
42 hr wk up from 38
single rate o/t
5 days less holidays
if you work a bank holiday you get NO lieu day !!
if you don't work a bank holiday you get the lieu day !!
no shift pay when sick

all the above implemented 25th april 2002

but if you are a director of MAplc you will be enjoying a 30 - 40%
rise in pay

and this is an airport owned by 9 labour councils !

hope the TGWU don't let you down, they let security down


Checkout www.magalliance.com for more information of above dispute

Chiglet, I saw the same report, the usual poorly researched 5hite from 'responsible' journo's. In the following post I will not comment on my feelings towards the industrial action, trawling reporters please note a payment towards the pprune fund if you plaigarise any of the following! This is what BBC journo should have said:

The RFF cat does not change if the 'civil' brigades are unavailable, the airport authority has to be able to provide fire cover under normal operations hence the RFF categories. In the event of a civil strike the green godesses will turn up if they are available but the accident/incident must be able to be dealt with by the airport service, regardless of whether the 'civvies' are available. If the union elements of them do go on strike then the RFF cat may well be degraded or reduced to an unworkable level for most operations. The easy way that this may occur is a series of short 3-4 hour strikes at co-located airports eg LHR,STN and LGW simultaneously. This will mean that the destination and primary alternates will not be available, diversions, crews out of hours, positioning flights etc. Only needs two or three strikes. say Monday morning rush hour and Friday night rush hour, easy, absolute sodding chaos!

The security is slightly easier to deal with, just get pax to report much much earlier, and if they ain't there, then go without em, stay on schedule, no refund as action out of airlines hands. Mr and Mrs public very quickly losing any sympathy with the strikers. And Mr and Mrs Airline sue the TGWU for damages.

These could be co-ordinated, start with the security, if the BAA fail to respond, up the ante with the Fire service, oh and alternate the action on a daily basis.

Now lets sit back and see which media outlet uses this first! Remember you saw it first on PPrune.org!!!

Perhaps someone at Hounslow Municipal may be able to correct me, but I understand that the airfield fire service is not responsible for 'domestic' fire cover ie terminals buildings, the tower etc. If the action coincides with action by the civil fire service then with no fire cover, we ain't gonna do any business!

You have to ask yourself what kind of nineteen year old macho business studies graduate thought that offering 1.7% to anyone would be unconditionally accepted by any group of workers.

It's almost an article of faith these days that you're not any kind of a manager unless you bring your department to the verge of industrial action.:confused:
edited for poor smelling

Jumpseater thank you for the information; it is appreciated.

Thing is, I only have 420 words to tell the whole story. While I would love to reprint a detailed technical explanation of the airport fire service requirements, it just isn't possible. This morning I simply said: "BAA is unlikely to operate its runways without [airport fire service crews]." We're broadly in agreement, are we not?

Interesting question about the terminal buildings. BAA press office told me yesterday that (up here at least) airport fire crews cover the buildings as well as the runways. I queried this, but they were adamant. In the spirit of endeavouring to find the facts, perhaps someone could advise otherwise?

At Glasgow, anytime a fire alarm has went off in the terminal or any other airport building, both the airport crews and Strathclyde's finest have attended.

I am aware that the RFF category is solely for an aircraft accident/incident, and that is their primary duty. At airports I have worked at they will hand over a terminal incident to the 'civilians' as soon as possible, so they can return to their primary duties, and not affect the RFF category. At the bigger airports a terminal fire may not reduce the RFF cat, however at the smaller airfields a terminal incident may well reduce or eliminate the fire cover available, if the local civilians are on strike. If they have an aircraft and terminal incident simultaneously it will be a difficult call to make.

And yes aj we're broadly in agreement, I do realise copy space is limited, and that some of our tech stuff would make dull copy too!

fire cover
 

at heathrow the airport fire service has a domestic engine, often seen on the airport series. as regards to the baa airports, well in scotland they can put all the traffic for glasgow to prestwick, and leuchars/dundee and inverness can take the edinburgh and aberdeen traffic! and as for lhr,lgw and stn send it all to manston, wattisham northolt and luton!

Aerodrome RFF crew have to complete Hot Fire training on an aircraft rig every 3 months something that Civil Fire Fighters don't do.

However, I believe that under JAR Ops the responsibilty for correct RFF Category at Aerodromes lies with the Aircraft Operators. Now an Aircraft Operator can accept a lower category RFF if other measures have been put in place.

An example is Debonair. They wanted to set-up a schedule to Pontoise which is published as CAT5 but the BA146-XXX that they wanted to use was a CAT6 aircraft requiring one more firefighter. Debonair were able to negotiate that everytime their flights operated in and out of Pontoise that Jean-Claude from the local fire station would jump into his Citroen and go to the airport to provide the extra man.

SRS is right. It is up to the operator to ensure that the airport has the correct category of fire service for the size of aircraft operated. The airport declares what category is available at any particular time. If the aircraft is too large for the category available, you divert or do not start engines.

If some of the fire staff go on strike then it is likely there will be a variable category declaration shift by shift. So when the shift change time arrives the category can change which might cause problems for the landing stream of aircraft - and those waiting to take off.

On security, the passenger search teams will either stop or delay passengers going airside in the terminal. Annoys the passengers but doesn't directly affect aircraft.

Access security manning the gates will affect departures as no security then no access. Most likely result will be managers manning one (or more) gate with consequent delays and queues.

Having listened to the airport workers' spokesman on the radio the other night, I have to say that the grievance they have seems perfectly legitimate. He made his points quite clearly - and the paltry pay rise being offered by the BAA does seem to be scandalous.

How much are the workers actually asking for? Is this going to ACAS first - or will the general public, thoroughly pi$$ed off with Uk airports in general, vote with their feet.

Wake up, BAA!!

BEagle,

What is so scandalous about a pay offer exactly in line with UK inflation ?

I'm really fed up with people going on strike because they are not clever enough to have secured a higher earning job.

Too many people in this country just don't see themselves as being responsible for the position that they find themselves in.

Gusty

So the Dates are Announced
 

Six one day strike dates announced - the last two make interesting reading 23 Dec and 02 Jan! Does everyone think this will go ahead now?

FYI: BAA's Press Release

courtesy of AOL
 

AIRPORTS STRIKES CALLED

FIREFIGHTERS, security guards and other workers at seven airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick, are to stage six one-day strikes in a dispute over pay.

The Transport and General Workers Union said its members will walk out on November 28, December 2, 10, 15 and 23 and January 2.

The airports - Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh - will not be able to operate on strike days, said the TGWU's national officer Tim Lyle.

Mr Lyle said he hoped the strikes could be averted, and maintained that BAA could afford to increase its offer after making big profits this year.

Workers felt frustrated at the offer, given their increased workloads and responsibilities following the September 11 outrage, he added.

GustyOrange

Nothing - however BAA is still making profits and the Directors certainly did not get a rise this year 'in line with inflation' (Directors basic salary up by about 5%) - Sauce for the goose etc.?

I also see that the NATS guys are going on strike over the scandalous bonuses paid to their directors.

The sooner that senior management start to take a 'fairer' attitude to the pay of ALL staff, then you may see less industrial unrest.