Gatwick passengers may face foodless flights over Christmas
A union's balloting catering workers at eight UK airports for strike action
Passengers heading out of Gatwick Airport this Christmas may have to make do without food and drink on their flights, if catering staff walk out.
More than 700 production line, warehouse and delivery workers at the dnata firm are being balloted for strike action by the Unite union.
The action, if it goes ahead, would affect workers at eight UK sites - Heathrow, Gatwick, Glasgow, London City, Stansted, Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham.
Short and long-haul flights would both be affected at a range of major airlines, including but not limited to easyJet, TUI and Emirates.
Unite has claimed workers are angry at the company’s attempts to change their terms and conditions without consultation.
Those include proposals to change how rostering, variable working, annualised hours, seasonal working, absence management and annual leave allocations are carried out.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:
“dnata’s attempts to bypass its workers and force through damaging changes to terms and conditions will not be tolerated.
"Unite’s dnata members have their union’s full and unflinching support in fighting its underhand attempts to impose these plans.”
The industrial action ballot opened this week and will close on December 5th, with strikes potentially being scheduled over the Christmas period.
Unite national officer for aviation Balvinder Bir said:
“Strikes would have a serious impact on major airlines at eight UK airports and will be entirely the fault of dnata.
"There is still time for industrial action to be avoided but that will require dnata entering into meaningful negotiations with Unite about the changes it is putting forward.”