Heathrow security guards to strike for 10 days over Easter

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), sixth left blue jacket, joins union members on the picket line during a rail strike in a long-running dispute over jobs and pensions, outside Euston station in London, Saturday March 18, 2023. (Jeff Moore/PA via AP)

LONDON -

Security guards at London's Heathrow Airport will walk off their jobs for 10 days over the Easter break, the latest in a wave of strike action to affect the U.K.

The union Unite said Friday more than 1,400 security guards employed by Heathrow Airport, one of Europe's busiest, will strike from March 31 to Easter Sunday, April 9, to demand better pay.

Unite said those striking include guards who work at the airport's Terminal Five, which is used exclusively by British Airways, as well as those responsible for checking all cargo that enters the airport.

The strikes will coincide with the two-week Easter school holidays, traditionally a peak time for travel for many in Britain.

The union said workers are forced to take action because they cannot make ends meet as a cost-of-living crisis continues to affect millions of Britons. Heathrow has offered a 10% pay increase, but the union said that wasn't enough amid soaring inflation and following years of pay freezes.

"Workers at Heathrow Airport are on poverty wages while the chief executive and senior managers enjoy huge salaries," Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said.

Inflation in the U.K. climbed steeply last year to 11.1% in October, though it dropped to 10.1% in January. That's still the highest in about 40 years, and a dramatic change after years of 2% inflation.

Heathrow said it has contingency plans to keep the airport open and operational.

"Threatening to ruin people's hard-earned holidays with strike action will not improve the deal," the airport said in a statement.

Tens of thousands of teachers, doctors, health care workers, train and bus drivers and civil servants have staged mass walkouts in recent months to demand higher wages.

Union leaders representing nurses and ambulance crews have reached a pay deal with Britain's government, raising hopes that disruptions at the country's state-funded hospitals will soon end, but many other industries remain locked in bitter pay disputes with authorities.

On Saturday, thousands of rail workers staged another round of strikes that paralyzed about half of all train services across the U.K.

Britons have endured many days of train stoppages since last summer as the transport unions' bitter dispute with the government drags on. More strikes are planned on March 30 and April 1.