LIFELINE air services are to be hit across eleven state-owned airports across Scotland in a wave of strikes in a pay dispute.
Unite the union, which represents members in the Highlands and Islands Airport Limited (HIAL) group has confirmed that stoppages will hit all its 11 airports in the coming weeks.
The workforce, which includes security staff, baggage handlers, ground crew, fire and rescue, security and administration workers e has rejected a five per cent offer which they deemed "unacceptable" with Retail Price Inflation (RPI), used as a benchmark in some pay talks, at 13.4% in December Unite represents security staff, baggage handlers, ground crew along with those working in fire and rescue, security and administration.
Several days of 24-hour strike action will now take place across all 11 airports on the following dates.
Dundee Airport will be hit on February 17 and 20.
Stoppages will take place on February 21, 22 and 23 at Barra Airport, Benbecula Airport, Campbeltown Airport, Inverness Airport, Islay Airport, Kirkwall Airport, Stornoway Airport, Sumburgh Airport, Tiree Airport and Wick Airport.
Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: “Inflation is at a generational high yet the HIAL group believe a substantial real terms pay cut is what our hard working members deserve. This is completely unacceptable.
“Strike action is now inevitable at all 11 airports and this is entirely the fault of airport management and the Scottish Government. Unite will fully support our members in the fight for better jobs, pay and conditions across the Highlands and Islands.”
Union leaders say that HIAL claims it is bound by funding obligations set by the Scottish Government.
Unite has previously called on the Scottish Government to meet with the trade union, the workers and HIAL to improve pay, terms and conditions in the Highlands and Islands.
The union says that the Scottish Government to date has not directly met with Unite to discuss pay, recruitment and retention of workers across the HIAL group.
In December, HIAL members of Unite voted by 73.5% in favour of walkouts in a dispute over pay.
In the same ballot, 92.8% of workers backed taking action short of a strike in a bid to improve pay for rural communities amid a cost of living crisis.
Members took action just before Christmas in the pay dispute.
Shauna Wright, Unite industrial officer said: “Unite believes our hard working members who keep the airports operating in isolated and rural communities across Scotland deserve far more than what is currently on the table.
“Unite is once again calling on the Scottish Government to meet with us, the workers and HIAL management to fund an improved pay offer, and to deliver more investment in these communities. “If they do not then Unite’s strike action will be down to their inflexibility despite the Scottish Government showing flexibility in abundance in other areas of the public sector.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We absolutely respect the democratic right of union members to take industrial action – though it is disappointing that passengers face the prospect of further disruption. We encourage HIAL and Unite to continue to engage in positive dialogue in order to resolve this dispute.”
Unite has 120 members across all sites and says the impact would affect all airports differently. They include issue with mail not getting through to offshore workers not been able to mobilise to their installations and to get back home.
"This is a situation that could be resolved if HIAL would reopen negotiations," Unite said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here