Border Force strikes latest: : Almost two million air travellers told to expect delays
Air passengers have been warned to brace for disruption at major UK airports on Friday as hundreds of border force staff walk out.
More than 1,000 passport control workers who are members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will strike over a dispute about pay.
The strikes will affect Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports between Friday and next Monday and again from December 28 to 31.
Thousands of flights will land at the airports on those strike days, affecting up to 2 million passengers.
It is understood passengers could wait for hours in passport control queues, or held on aircraft, under airport plans to manage the disruption and limit overcrowding.
Lucy Moreton, professional officer with the The Union for Borders, Immigration and Customs (ISU), whose members voted against calling a strike due to the potential effect on national security, said UK media reports that passengers could be stuck on the tarmac for hours while terminals cleared were a worst-case scenario.
The effect of the strikes could turn out to be a “damp squib”, she added.
“There is no way to know what the impact will be,” she said.
“Previous experience with PCS strikes have been that very few people do answer that strike call. It’s not been massively effective. But this is different in that it’s over the festive period.”
You do not have to be a member of the calling union to withdraw your labour on the strike day, said Ms Moreton, which means members of the ISU could join the walkout.
But the action must be staged at locations where the strikes have been called.
“Some of ours may not work,” she said. "Some of ours may be dual members. We have no way to know.2
A source involved in discussions told The Times: “Border Force are talking about moving staff around the country but it is a very busy period
“Delays of two hours at the border are being routinely discussed in meetings. If everything backs up, or anything [such as e-gates] fails, then airports will have to instruct that passengers are held on planes to prevent overcrowding.”
Friday’s strike will be the culmination of a week of protest action across the UK, with nurses, ambulance drivers, postal, rail and bus workers all set to walk out over disputes about pay.
Airport officials are said to be most concerned about the second wave of action after Christmas, which has the potential to affect returning holidaymakers.
Decades of flight: Heathrow through the years - in pictures
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Heathrow Airport in London, the UK's busiest, has been a travel hub for decades. Here The National takes a look back at Heathrow through the years. All photos: Getty Images -
An Airco De Havilland biplane of the British airline, Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited, about to leave on the company’s inaugural flight from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome, later known as Heathrow, to Le Bourget, Paris, in August 1919 -
Waterlogged runways at London Airport - Heathrow's original name - one week before it became Britain's main aerial gateway to the US in 1946 -
The new BOAC maintenance headquarters at London Airport circa 1955 -
The air traffic control room at the airport's new terminal in 1955 -
US film star Marilyn Monroe with her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, after arriving at the airport in July 1956 -
An aerial view showing the runways in 1958 -
The arrivals and departures board in 1960 -
A new airport gift shop, selling items by Chanel, Wedgwood and Pringle of Scotland, in 1961 -
The Queen's Building and the No. 1 Building Europa at Heathrow in 1965 -
The Beatles leave Heathrow for Salzburg in Austria, to resume filming of the movie Help!, in 1965 -
Passenger terminal gates at Heathrow in 1966 -
Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC, holding up a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background, at Heathrow in 1969 -
An aerial view of Heathrow in 1970 -
Passengers boarding the first BOAC Jumbo Jet 747 used for a commercial flight, from London Heathrow to New York, in 1971 -
Passengers going through the departure lounge at Heathrow in 1973 -
Concorde takes off from Heathrow on her first commercial flight for British Airways in 1976 -
Men at work finalising the Heathrow Central underground station before its opening in 1977 -
Queen Elizabeth II passing though the Tube gates at Heathrow Central station on its opening in 1977 -
An aerial view of Heathrow in 1978 -
Passengers waiting near a departures board in 1979 -
Holidaymakers waiting in the departure lounge at Terminal 3 of Heathrow in 1981 -
British Airways employees protesting at Heathrow in 1984 -
Passengers and staff observe a silence in Heathrow's Terminal One to mark the beginning of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 -
Rower Steve Redgrave at Heathrow with daughters Sophie and Natalie and son Zak after returning from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with his gold medal -
Spectators watch the last Concorde land at Heathrow in 2003 -
Fans surround the coach carrying the England rugby team at Heathrow, as they arrived from Sydney after winning the World Cup in 2003 -
Heathrow's Terminal 2 in 2004 -
Passengers queue to check in at Terminal 1 of Heathrow Airport during the Christmas 2006 and New Year period -
Passengers wait at Terminal 1 on August 10, 2006, after airport security was raised to critical when a terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the US was disrupted by police -
Planes queueing to take off at Heathrow in 2007 -
The new Terminal 5 at Heathrow in 2008 -
Aircraft at Heathrow Airport in front of the London skyline in 2016 -
Members of Team GB arrive from Rio de Janeiro at Heathrow, after returning from the 2016 Olympics, which saw Great Britain's strongest performance at the Games in over a century -
A composite photo shows planes taking off from Heathrow in November 2016. Forty-two planes were captured between 10.17am and 11.17am and a montage was created from those single images -
Items are arranged during an auction preview at Heathrow in 2018. The contents of Terminal 1, which closed in 2015, were being sold -
An airline passenger wearing a face mask pushes her bags through Heathrow's Terminal 5 during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 -
British Airways employees welcome Olympians returning from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 -
Travellers wait in a long queue to pass through the security check in 2022
Ms Moreton said: “PCS on their own figures have a maximum of 1,000 staff in border force and 3,000 military trained, not adequately in our view, but it’s entirely possible it’s going to be a complete damp squib, I am afraid. It might be very limited.
“I am worried it could be nothing. It’s a wasted opportunity.”
Airlines have stopped selling tickets on those days.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said the government could stop the strikes “tomorrow” if it puts money on the table.
“Like so many workers, our members are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis” he told The National. "They are desperate. They are being told there is no money for them, while they watch ministers giving out government contracts worth billions of pounds to their mates.
“Some sections of the media have accused us of playing politics with these strikes. Let me be clear: our dispute is with the employer.
“We will fight to improve our members’ pay, terms and conditions, regardless of who is in Downing Street.”
A representative for Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, said the "vast majority" of travellers would be unaffected by the latest strikes.
"We are doing everything we can to protect a full flight schedule on strike days, so departing passengers should expect to travel as normal.
"Arriving passengers with UK, EU, US, Canadian and some other passports will be able to use e-gates as usual and their journeys should be largely unaffected on strike days.
"Border Force has contingency measures to ensure other arriving passengers are cleared safely and as quickly as possible. We are continuing to support them to strengthen these plans so that as few people are impacted as possible. If passengers who cannot use e-gates are concerned about travelling during the strikes, their airline may be able to offer them alternative travel dates."
The government has said requests for wage increases by striking workers are “simply not affordable”.
Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden used the example of nurses seeking a 19 per cent salary rise.
“I’d love to give nurses an enormous pay rise,” Mr Dowden told the BBC. “The reason why we’re not doing this is because our duty is to everyone — public and private sector — to make sure we have stability in our public finances.”
Other sectors from rail workers to postal delivery staff and bus drivers have also been protesting for higher pay as inflation holds above 10 per cent.
