Strike action by workers employed by ground handling company Red Handling, at Gatwick Airport, which was planned to begin tomorrow morning, Friday 18 August, has now been called off after workers received a significantly improved pay offer.
Gatwick Airport strike action update
The workers who are members of Unite, the UK’s leading union, received the revised offer late yesterday, Wednesday 16 August, and will now be balloted on the proposed deal. As an act of good faith this week’s strike action has now been suspended.
Unite regional officer Dominic Rothwell said: “Unite has been consistent from the outset, we believed that Red Handling could afford to make an improved offer and that proved to be the case.”
“Our members will now decide whether the deal on the table meets their expectations,” Mr Rothwell concluded.
A strike by Red Handling workers would have affected the ground handling for Norse Atlantic, Norwegian, Delta, TAP Air Portugal, and Saudi.
Unite had previously estimated that the strikes would potentially affect 216 flights and 45,000 passengers.
It should be noted that the planned weekend strike action has been postponed pending the result of the ballot. If the workers subsequently reject the offer, then the strike action planned from Friday 25 August until Monday 28 August will go ahead as scheduled.
Wilson James strike previously suspended
This morning’s update on the suspension of industrial action by Red Handling workers follows yesterdays new that the weekend strike action at Gatwick Airport by members of Wilson James, which operates the passenger assistance programme at the airport, was also suspended to allow members to vote on the a new offer.
Collectively, the proposed strikes involved over 230 workers, who are members of Unite; employed at Red Handling, a ground handling company and Wilson James, which operates the passenger assistance contract at the London airport.
