LONDON, 24 July 2003 — Thousands of air travelers faced the prospect of further disruption as British Airways management and unions held emergency talks yesterday aimed at ending a dispute that has brought chaos to London’s Heathrow airport.
The two sides were due to meet yesterday evening at the offices of labor dispute conciliation service Acas to break a deadlocked row over BA’s plans to introduce a new, electronic clocking-on system for check-in staff. Talks broke down late Tuesday, raising the prospect of further pandemonium at Heathrow, where a wildcat strike by staff at the weekend stranded thousands of passengers in London, some for up to four days.
Despite the lack of agreement, BA went ahead with the switch from the paper-based method of signing in to the new swipe-card technology from midday (1100 GMT) yesterday.
Mervyn Walker, BA’s director of Heathrow, said the company was “ready and eager” to talk to unions at any time. “We should be talking to try to resolve this and any involvement from Acas is welcome and helpful to us because we want to get this resolved.”
But the General and Municipal Boilermakers Union, one of three involved in the dispute, announced it would go ahead with a ballot on possible industrial action among its 900 members who work in the check-in areas at Heathrow and also at London’s Gatwick airport.
Despite the prospect of more discussions, “with the precedents that talks over the past two days have set, we will be proceeding with an industrial action ballot at Heathrow and Gatwick,” said Allan Black, a national official for the union.
Staff complain that the new system could see them sent home during quiet periods and forced to return on busier days, a claim dismissed by BA. The breakdown in talks came after British Airways largely succeeded in clearing a backlog of 700 frustrated passengers stranded at Heathrow by the walk-out, which began late Friday.