LONDON – British airport operator BAA and the Unite union have reached a deal to prevent a strike at major UK airports.
“We are pleased to report that a basis for settlement has been agreed,” said Acas chief conciliator Peter Harwood.
The strike could have shut six of the country’s major airports this month.
Unite’s national officer Brian Boyd said the union was calling off the threat of strikes while workers vote on the new proposal, details of which will be announced today.
Mr Boyd said: “Unite came to these negotiations with a strong mandate for industrial action.
“In today’s negotiations between Unite and BAA, the assistance of Acas has been constructive, and we are pleased to announce we are calling off strike action at BAA’s six airports.
“Unite’s negotiating committee will recommend a much-improved offer from BAA. Details of the agreement will be made public once BAA staff have been advised of the improved offer.’’
Mr Boyd said he wanted to thank Acas for its help during the “tough negotiations”.
Mr Harwood said the talks had been “challenging” but he was pleased that the basis of a deal had been agreed. “As you would expect, the details of the deal are confidential until the parties report back to their respective constituencies.”
He said Unite, as well as two other unions involved in the dispute, Prospect and the Public and Commercial Services union, would ballot their members with a recommendation to accept, adding: “Acas is pleased at this development and hope that the matter will soon be settled.”
Brendan Gold, national secretary of Unite, said: “We’ve reached a settlement which we are prepared to recommend to our members.
“We will be undertaking a ballot of our members, and that will commence over the next couple of days, and last for probably about three weeks.
“But that recommendation for acceptance we hope our members will listen to, and we are very pleased to be able to reassure the travelling public that we for our side have worked tirelessly to achieve a settlement.”
He said he was confident that the union’s negotiators had reached a recommended settlement that should put an end to any strike threats in the aviation sector of BAA.
Terry Morgan of BAA said: “We believe that the unions are going to recommend acceptance of our offer to their membership, and if that’s the case then we are very, very confident that any disruption to our airport operations has now been avoided, which is very important to us, to make sure that people travelling on holiday and business over the next few weeks can do so with a high degree of confidence that their journeys are not going to be disrupted.”
He said both sides had come out with a deal they were happy with. “I think it’s a deal that is a fair reward for our staff, but it’s also a deal that the company can afford.”
BAA is owned by Spanish construction company Ferrovial. – (Reuters/PA)