Luton Airport cleaners to strike over Christmas
Cleaners at Luton Airport are threatening further strike action over the Christmas period.
The industrial action is scheduled to start at 6.30am on Friday December 21 until Friday December 28 6.29am.
It is the second week-long strike by the Sasse workers, who are at loggerheads with the company over pay.
The first strike ended earlier this week and, according to Unite the Union, was well supported.
Unite regional officer Jeff Hodge said: "Workers at Luton are striking for a second time. The cleaners are fighting against poverty pay this Christmas because Luton Airport and Sasse refuse to recognise the real hardship the workers and their families face.
"By 2021 cleaners at Luton Airport still won’t be earning a real Living Wage which is the minimum that workers need to get by. In 2017 Sasse increased its turnover by 21 per cent to £9 million and London Luton Airport announced profits of nearly £40 million. It is an absolute disgrace that the airport and its contractor won’t pay a wage workers can live on."
Sasse was awarded the contract by Luton Airport in April this year and has offered a three-year pay deal to increase workers’ pay.
But Unite says by 2021 workers will still be earning below the real Living Wage of £9.
On November 5 the Living Wage Foundation announced an increase in the real Living Wage by 35p an hour to £10.55 for workers in London and by 25p to £9 outside the capital.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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