{"id":24044,"date":"2020-10-02T15:54:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T14:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=24044"},"modified":"2020-10-02T15:54:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T14:54:31","slug":"workers-face-poverty-in-heathrow-fire-and-rehire-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=24044","title":{"rendered":"Workers face poverty in Heathrow fire and rehire storm"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Heathrow, one of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest airports, is facing a complete shutdown this autumn, as members of Unite prepare to ballot for strike action, over the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempts to slash the pay of 4,000 workers by up to \u00c2\u01418,000.<\/p>\n

Members of Unite employed directly by Heathrow Airport Ltd (HAL) including security officers, engineers, airside operatives and firefighters will begin balloting for industrial action on Thursday 8 October with the ballot closing on Thursday 5 November with strikes following soon after.<\/p>\n

The dispute is a direct result of Heathrow Airport Limited\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (HAL) decision to issue controversial section 188 notices to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 staff on vastly inferior pay and conditions. Workers face losing up to \u00c2\u01418,000 per annum, around 25\u00c2\u00a0per cent of their pay.<\/p>\n

Workers selling homes <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fearful of being pushed into certain poverty if HAL\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposals are implemented,\u00c2\u00a0workers are already preparing to sell their homes, move to cheaper location,\u00c2\u00a0into smaller accommodation or give up their cars.<\/p>\n

Heathrow has claimed the pay cuts are a necessary consequence of\u00c2\u00a0the Covid-19 pandemic but Unite rejects this as a\u00c2\u00a0fabrication claiming that HAL\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true intention is to use the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098cover of covid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to implement\u00c2\u00a0long-held plans to cut staff pay to boost profits.<\/p>\n

The union also dismisses\u00c2\u00a0HAL\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cries of poverty pointing to\u00c2\u00a0the vast salaries paid to senior executives – its chief executive was paid \u00c2\u01413m in pay and pensions last year – and asking why the salary sacrifice does not start at the top of the organisation. There were 49 directors at Heathrow who earned over \u00c2\u014121m last year.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the pandemic HAL\u00c2\u00a0announced it had a war chest of \u00c2\u01413.2bn and could survive without a flight leaving for a year.\u00c2\u00a0HAL also paid a \u00c2\u0141100m dividend to shareholders\u00c2\u00a0including\u00c2\u00a0the Qatari royal family.<\/p>\n

In September the airport was catering for between 400 and 580 flights per day.\u00c2\u00a0 Flights include the lucrative British Airways route to JFK which is popular for pre-Christmas travel.<\/p>\n

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conviction about HAL\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motives are borne out by the fact that the cuts are permanent rather than temporary.<\/p>\n

The union also argues that it has assisted the airport in cutting costs by working with it earlier this year to undertake a voluntary severance scheme which saw over 800 workers leave the airport.<\/p>\n

Unite has also attempted to discuss further proposals to save money, which would avoid cutting staff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pay permanently, but management has rejected such proposals.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Truly shocking\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe\u00c2\u00a0opportunism of HAL’s highly-paid managers\u00c2\u00a0is truly shocking,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Unite regional co-ordinating officer Wayne King.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey are\u00c2\u00a0using the cover of Covid to impose brutal cuts on workers trying to get by in one of the most expensive cities on the planet.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey are picking the pockets of loyal\u00c2\u00a0workers whose earnings\u00c2\u00a0are the lifeblood of the local economy\u00c2\u00a0yet\u00c2\u00a0leaving their super-salaries unscathed and shareholders\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bounties untouched.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is an immoral\u00c2\u00a0act born from boardroom\u00c2\u00a0greed with\u00c2\u00a0nothing whatsoever to do with financial need and it will be condemned as such by all right-thinking people. These pay cuts are so great that workers face losing their homes with hard-working families being plunged into poverty.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHAL\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s directors and shareholders must look to their\u00c2\u00a0consciences not just their riches and step back from this now,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 continued King.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has made repeated\u00c2\u00a0attempts\u00c2\u00a0to work with HAL to find cost savings but rather than advance such talks they have decided it is better to fire and rehire staff on vastly inferior rates of pay.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe urge HAL to drop these appalling fire and rehire plans and instead enter into constructive and honest negotiations with Unite,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he concluded.<\/p>\n

By Barckley Sumner <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heathrow, one of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest airports, is facing a complete shutdown this autumn, as members of Unite prepare to ballot for strike action, over the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempts to slash the pay of 4,000 workers by up to \u00c2\u01418,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[102,1409,195,88],"wps_subtitle":"Last call to fat cat bosses to stop UK top airport strikes this autumn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24044"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24056,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24044\/revisions\/24056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}