{"id":9085,"date":"2016-06-22T15:39:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T14:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9085"},"modified":"2016-06-22T15:39:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T14:39:09","slug":"airport-strike-on-the-horizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9085","title":{"rendered":"Airport strike on the horizon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Unite, Scotland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biggest union, today (June 22) said it would ballot about 480 workers at Glasgow and Aberdeen airports for strike action, after 98 per cent of workers rejected proposed changes to the pensions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 schemes operated by the airports\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 owner, AGS.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Possible industrial action could disrupt holiday flights over the summer, resulting in unnecessary loss of revenue as Glasgow airport celebrates its 50<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>AGS Airports is a partnership between Ferrovial and Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA), established in 2014, to acquire Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite held a consultative ballot last month with members, following AGS proposals to make significant \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and detrimental &#8211; changes to the pensions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 schemes that will adversely impact on retirement incomes, given that pensions are, in effect, deferred wages.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The ballot, for strike action and industrial action short of a strike, will close on Wednesday, July 13. The jobs covered at the two airports include security and airfield operations, airside services, firefighters, operations officer and passenger service agent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite tabled a counter proposal to AGS management that maintained a defined benefit scheme, but reduced the employer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contribution from 44 per cent to 20-21 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Unite proposal would have meant a yearly saving over \u00c2\u01413.5 million. The proposal was rejected by AGS which then put a further proposal to cut the cost rate further to 17 per cent which equates to a further saving of \u00c2\u0141640,000.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has continually tried to negotiate a remedy with AGS over the proposed pensions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 schemes changes that avoids the need for industrial action and disruption at the two airports,&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0 said Unite regional officer Pat McIlvogue.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite put forward a proposal, which would save the company \u00c2\u01413.5 million-a-year, but despite our repeated attempts to reach an amicable solution our efforts have been met with intransigence,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has no option but to ballot members for industrial action to protect pension provisions that are deferred wages and to strongly oppose AGS\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 proposed imposition.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The AGS pension proposals are also causing serious concern at Southampton airport where Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s members are also considering an industrial action ballot following the failure of the company to negotiate, despite repeated attempts.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite, Scotland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biggest union, today (June 22) said it would ballot about 480 workers at Glasgow and Aberdeen airports for strike action, after 98 per cent of workers rejected proposed changes to the pensions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 schemes operated by the airports\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 owner, AGS. &nbsp; Possible industrial action could disrupt holiday flights over the summer, resulting in unnecessary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[270,90,132],"wps_subtitle":"Glasgow and Aberdeen airport staff reject pensions scheme changes","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9085"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9087,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9085\/revisions\/9087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}