Thanks very much for that info - crossing fingers that all will be resolved if they keep talking.... this is a long awaited holiday for us and I cant bring myself to get excited until I know whats happening re the strike!

When are people going to wake up to these unions?
I was in Unite union myself until recently when I became fed up paying nearly £5 a week and seeing the fatcat union chiefs earning ridiculous money for doing precious little
I certainly wont be getting a pay rise for the foreseeable future, and to be honest I'm just glad to have a job.

Unions make me sick. They are asking for a bonus payment because they came close to hitting their target. Yes....came CLOSE to hitting it. Targets are targets, and if you fail to hit them you've failed!! What is this country coming to?

TC

Has anyone considered that BAA management may be to blame? Staff at other airports are in unions, probably Unite, but only BAA gets in this state year after year. Not even Liverpool Airport, heartland of supposed militant unions, has problems like this.

Maybe this thread could be kept for useful information about flights and the right wing tosh can be sent to the Daily Mail.

how much are the top line managment getting then and also what perks beside.

I was just thinking the same Steve. Can we keep on topic please rather than going down the route of union debates. Latest information is on BBC's website, BAA's website and UNITE's website.

Darren

Airports strike threat called off after new pay offer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10449594

Union bosses have given their staff a 0% pay rise whilst they nearly bring the travel industry to its knees by forcing strikes left right and center. What a joke...

Unions are funded by their members subscriptions that are usually arrived at on the basis of a formula linked to member's salaries. In my Union, everytime I get a payrise my subs go up and WE (ie the Union) can afford to also increase the salaries of the staff that we employ. But this year I, and every other member of my Union almost certainly won't be getting pay rises because the entire union membership works in a very specific area of the public sector. If the government has its way - and it almost certainly will - there will be no rises for us this year. The union's income, therefore will still remain largely static, especially as we are an aging workforce with the majority of members at the top of their pay scales and hence not standing any chance of receiving any pay increments as they move up the salary scale either. So we are going to be one of those 'hypercritical' unions that won't be in a position to afford to offer our staff pay rises whilst trying to do everything possible to try and ensure that members do get some sort of pay rise now that inflation is running at close to 5%. If we manage that, then income will rise and we could also offer are own staff a payrise as well. Being able to do so is closely connected to obtaining a pay rise for members.

As for the BAA strike the Unite didn't nearly bring the travel industry to its knees - it thought that the business that operates only 6 out off all the airports in the UK could afford to make its members an offer and as it turns out, the company thought so too in the end and negotiated one very, very quickly compared to the length of time that the annual pay talks take with the employers in my sector. The union wasn't pursuing a sector wide increase across all UK airports - it fully realised that most of the smaller ones, and especially those owned by local councils, probably wouldn't be able to afford it. I would be curious to know whether, in the event of a payfreeze for BAA employees, this would have also resulted in a pay freeze and no bonus payments to senior execs or dividend payouts to shareholders. What's bringing the travel industry to its knees is the recession and companies going bust, along with ordinary workers being worried about their jobs and falling incomes in relation to living costs and hence cutting their cloth accordingly when it comes to booking holidays. And as it turns out according to today's Radio 4 news, allowing senior executives whose business plan brought Excel to collapse to repeat the same trick with Kiss.

OK Mods, I know I'm and I promise I won't rise to the bait again and won't continue the rant, no matter what else is said.

SM

Have to agree with steve and sma, 2% increase over the last 2 years is certainly not excessive and a guaranteed £500 bonus after no payout last year is fairer than BAA hoodwinking its workforce like it did last year with a pay freeze and no intention of paying out the "carrot" bonus.
Workers in the majority of businesses have had to change working arrangements and accept pay freezes over the last year , but they can't carry on doing this and its not fair especially if those businesses are making a profit due to the hard work by its staff and they just keep on using the recession as an excuse which means their workforce continue to take a drop in living standards and even less disposable income, which will keep us in a recession and cost even more jobs.
I think this deal is fair and sensible and ideally it would be good if all workers could get this, i think the union has done exactly what it should do, it has looked after its members and achieved a fair compromise, it wasn't demanding massive rises, but felt that 1% was not enough.
It will be interesting to see if Gatwicks owners agree a similar deal.