Manchester Airport faces strike threat
Workers at Manchester Airport have voted to strike over plans to cut security staff numbers.
The airport wants to cut staff numbers from 700 down to 560 in a bid to lower its costs. But staff belonging to the Transport and General Workers Union say this could lead to security being compromised and have backed strike action by 726 votes to 153.
A Manchester Airport spokesman told TravelMole that the cuts would not lead to a reduction of security at the airport. He said: “We are reducing the overall number of people on security work, but we will be redeploying and rebalancing staff to relate to passenger throughput which fluctuates depending on the time of day and the time of year. It was never going to be a situation where the number of people actually on duty is reduced, if anything there will be slightly more.”
The spokesman said the airport needed to become more competitive in order to attract low cost carriers. It follows Go selecting East Midlands Airport as its second UK base, which will also be home to bmi’s new low-cost offshoot bmibaby.
He pointed out: “If we are going to attract the easyJets of this world we need a low cost base.”
No dates for the strike have yet been announced.
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