Fresh strikes averted at Heathrow

Chaos at Heathrow during the recent wildcat strike

A strike threat that could have led to further travel chaos at Heathrow airport this summer has been lifted.

Some 900 staff working for Swissport - which supplies ground-handling services for about 40 airlines at Heathrow - were threatening to walk out over jobs.

But following "intensive" management-union talks, the staff's union, the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G), agreed to abandon the strike threat.

I can confirm that we have lifted the threat of strike action as a consequence of the real progress we made Patrick O'Keeffe, T&G national secretary

T&G national secretary for civil aviation Patrick O'Keeffe, said "real progress" had been made on issues involving staff redundancies and pay.

He said: "We had tough but fair talks with Swissport senior managers over a range of issues.

"The company has agreed to reinstate the people who were sacked last week.

'Concerns'

"This has paved the way for further discussion on how we can resolve the dispute over how future redundancies will be managed."

The T&G and the company have also agreed to refer talks on pay to the conciliatory service Acas, he said.

"We'll keep working towards a resolution of our concerns about new technology."

"I can confirm that we have lifted the threat of strike action as a consequence of the real progress we made," Mr O'Keeffe added.

The union had been due to ballot members for strike action on Friday.

The selection criteria for redundancies, pay and new technology, namely swipe-cards, have all been subjects for discussion.

The T&G said talks on pay would be referred to the arbitration service Acas.

Swissport has agreed to reinstate workers who were given notice of compulsory redundancy last week.

The company had also agreed to further talks with the union on the other issues.

Turmoil

Airlines served by Swissport include Aer Lingus, Air India and Pakistan International Airlines.

Swissport operates at more than 130 airports in 22 countries.

In 2001, it served more than 55m passengers, provided ramp handling for more than 1,600,000 aircraft and handled 892,000 metric tons of cargo.

Heathrow airport was thrown into turmoil in July when British Airways check-in staff walked out in protest at the introduction of a new electronic swipe card clocking-on system.

Hundreds of passengers were left stranded for days.

An agreement was eventually reached between the unions involved in the dispute and BA management, and the threat of further strike action was lifted.