Heathrow is braced for further disruption next month as hundreds of passenger assistance workers prepare to strike for four days.
Around 500 Heathrow workers providing assistance to passengers with restricted mobility (PRM) will strike for four days over the Easter holidays, Unite said on Friday.
Unite said the workers are “angry” at being paid an average of 9.5 per cent less than Wilson James staff at Gatwick performing the same role.
The union’s general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Wilson James and Heathrow are both highly profitable, so there is absolutely no excuse for these workers to be paid far less than their colleagues at Gatwick. Unite is backing these workers 100 per cent in their fight for fair pay.”
The workers will strike from April 5 to April 9.
Unite said industrial action will impact PRM services across the entire airport, with further strikes to take place if the dispute is not resolved.
According to the union, Wilson James workers at Heathrow walk an average of 13 miles a day while providing emotional reassurance and kindness to passengers who are often stressed and overwhelmed.
The news comes a week after hundreds of thousands of passengers had their flight cancelled, diverted or delayed when the airport suffered a power outage because of a fire at a nearby electricity substation.
No flights were permitted at the airport on that day until around 6pm.
More than 270,000 air passenger journeys were disrupted by the airport’s closure.
The Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday the blaze at the substation in Hayes, west London is no longer being treated as a “potentially criminal matter”, adding that officers found “no evidence to suggest that the incident was suspicious in nature”.
National Grid, London Fire Brigade and Southern Electricity Network will continue to investigate the cause of the fire.
