Heathrow to be hit by 24-hour strike
Queues at Heathrow Airport could get even worse next week if immigration workers carry out their threat to strike on Thursday.
The Immigration Services Union (ISU)is planning to join industrial action by public sector workers in protest over Government plans to increase the retirement age of arresting officers beyond 65.
The union represents 4,500 immigration staff, including hundreds at Heathrow and other UK ports and airports.
However, it is uncertain how many immigration staff will join the strike as fewer than a third of ISU members turned out to vote in the ballot and, of those who did vote, only 73% of members were in favour of industrial action.
The ISU said there was still time to avert the strike, providing the Government allows its members to retire at 65. "Members cannot work until their late sixties. Their jobs are too physically demanding," it said. "Arresting offenders and working a shift pattern impact on their health.
"The ISU has only ever gone out on strike once in 30 years. We are a moderate, non-political union. We prefer dialogue to strike action, agreement to discord."
Another union representing immigration staff is also planning industrial action. The Public and Commercial Services Union’s spokesman Richard Simcox said: "We will be striking and it will either cause more delays or lead to untrained staff waving people through without proper checks."
The union represents 13,000 Border Agency staff, 1,000 based at Heathrow.
It has also emerged that plans to recruit 300 extra staff to tackle long queues at airports and ports, especially Heathrow, have failed to win ministerial backing.
According to a report in The Times today, Immigration Minister Damian Green is worried about the political consequences of hiring 300 staff only shortly after aing 800 frontline border control jobs as part of Government spending cuts. A further 700 staff are due to go by 2014-15.
The proposals for extra staff will be considered by other officials, said The Times, but no decision will be taken until the head of the new Border Force has had time to look at staffing levels.
In the meantime, extra staff are being flown from Manchester to Heathrow as part of emergency measures to tackle queues at the UK’s premier hub, where it took some passengers up to three hours to get through immigration on the worst days last week.
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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