Border Force staff to strike at airports including Heathrow and Gatwick over Christmas
Christmas travellers face holiday flight delays and queues as Border Force staff at Britain’s biggest airports stage an eight-day strike over pay, pensions and jobs from Dec 23.
The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union on Wednesday announced that its members in Border Force will strike for four days over Christmas, from Dec 23 to 26, and then four days in the run-up to the New Year, from Dec 28 to 31.
The union, whose 1,000 striking Border Force members account for up to three in four frontline staff checking the passports of inbound passengers, will stage the action at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff airports and also at Newhaven port.
Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, warned that there would be “significant delays and disruption” for inbound passengers. The union is seeking a 10 per cent pay rise and fighting cuts to pensions and redundancy deals.
The Government has put 600 military personnel and hundreds more civil servants on standby. They will be dispatched to airports and ports to plug the gaps in border and immigration controls left by striking workers.
Airports and airlines are braced for possible flight cancellations depending on how effectively the military can take over. Heathrow said it was working with Border Force and airlines to minimise disruption, but warned that there would be queues.
“The Home Office advises that immigration and customs checks may take longer during peak times on strike days,” said a Heathrow spokesman. “Passengers are advised to check their flight status with their airline before travelling. We encourage all parties to resolve this dispute quickly.”
Mr Serwotka revealed he had written to Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the head of the Armed Forces, on Tuesday to warn him it would be an outrage and affront to travellers to use the military to break the strike.
“I made it clear that we think it would be an outrage if the British Armed Forces, who surely have far better things to do, are essentially brought in to strike break for public sector workers on poverty pay without adequate training,” he said.
“The idea that the military, in full military dress, will be there to meet people at passport checks at our airports is an affront to not just the people coming to this country, but actually to the skilled jobs of the workers who take a lot of training that they think they can replace with only three minutes training.”
“The idea that the military, in full military dress, will be there to meet people at passport checks at our airports is an affront to not just the people coming to this country, but actually to the skilled jobs of the workers who take a lot of training that they think they can replace with only three minutes training.”
Mr Serwotka has met Government ministers but said they were refusing to increase a two per cent pay rise. “They keep saying their door is open, but it is a very strange door because there’s nothing behind it,” he added.
He warned that the PCS would escalate industrial action in the New Year unless the deadlock was broken, indicating that the most likely targets for action would be the Driving Vehicle Licensing Authority, responsible for driving licences, and the Passport Office.
He also said that up 30 unions could coordinate strike action to maximise the impact on the public.
“If 30 unions have ballots for action, then ultimately there has to be 30 unions doing something on the same day,” he told The Telegraph. “Clearly, if unions chose to do that it would be the most significant industrial action in a decade.” He said he would support such a move.
Mr Serwotka said National Highways strikes next week had already been coordinated with the RMT. “Members will start with industrial action next week on national highways, with traffic officers taking industrial action over a five-week period rolling around the country,” he added. “Six of those days coordinated to take place on the same day as rail strikes called by the RMT.”
A government source said: “Mark Serwotka has revealed what we feared all along – militant unions are colluding to cause maximum misery over Christmas.”
The PCS is one of the biggest Whitehall unions, with 100,000 members across 214 government departments and other public bodies, and has already announced strike dates by staff in the Driver and Vehicle Standard Agency, the Rural Payment Agency on Nov 29, National Highways on Dec 2 and the Department for Work and Pensions on Dec 5.
