12.08.05
An unofficial strike by BA groundworkers yesterday, who went out on strike in support of BA catering supplier GateGourmet staff, has caused chaos at Heathrow airport. It meant flights were delayed or cancelled, so that 17000 passengers were stranded at the airport. In addition, as this caused planes and staff to be out of position, BA announced that there will be no BA flights flying out of Heathrow until at least 18:00 today (Friday).
The groundworkers took unofficial action to support 500 TGWU workers sacked by GateGourmet earlier this week. The GateGourmet staff had themselves taken unofficial action in a dispute about summer temporary staff employed by BA's inflight food supplier. Many passengers want the airline to take the same action as GateGourmet, and sack the striking workers.
Although planes continued to land at Heathrow yesterday, some passengers spent as many as 7 hours stranded on their plane - on the runway or apron areas - until the airline was able to get them off the plane and into the airport without groundworkers.
This caused flights into and out of the airport to be delayed or cancelled, meaning that planes and staff are 'out of position'. As a result BA announced that they will not be any BA flights out of Heathrow until at least 18:00 today.
Around 17000 passengers were stranded at Heathrow overnight, with most choosing to stay at heathrow airport hotels. However hundreds chose to stay at Heathrow, in the hope of staying in a queue and flying out as soon as possible.
The strike will affect a further 40,000 people today, as around 500 BA flights into and out of heathrow are cancelled prior to the planned 18:00 restart of flights. It will cost BA £10m a day in terms of lost revenues, extra costs of helping stranded passengers and compensation payments. Some £450m wiped off BA's share price yesterday.
A very angry Rod Eddington, the BA Chief Executive who retires in just over 2 weeks, appeared on TV last night. Clearly does not want to be remembered for yet another strike. BA suffered a similar problem last year, when staff shortages caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled. Ultimately, it lead to BA's airports director stepping down.
Eddington advised passengers to go to the BA website (www.ba.com) for up to date information - although when we checked, it wasn't always accurate (it suggested a flight leaving at 16:00 would leave on time, even though flights are not due to start until 2 hours later.
To book heathrow airport hotel or heathrow airport parking at the lowest price click on these links to heathrow airport parking and heathrow airport hotel price comparison pages.
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