Thomas Cook crew threaten half-term strike

More than 1000 Thomas Cook Airlines’ cabin crew are threatening industrial action which could disrupt flights during the forthcoming half-term holiday.

Their union Unite began balloting members on Friday in a dispute with the airline over health and safety concerns.

Union bosses claim the airline has made ‘dangerous’ changes to rest breaks, which have been cut to 20 minutes during an 11 hour 59 minute duty period.

They claim cabin crew are ‘being pushed to the limit’ as the airline tries to maximize profits, which in turn is putting passenger safety at risk.

"Cabin crew, whose primary duty on board an aircraft is passenger safety, have voiced increasing alarm about the impact of fatigue on inflight safety following Thomas Cook’s insistence that they work for up to 12 hours with only a 20 minute break," it said.

Crew were previously entitled to a 20-minute break every six hours.

A member of cabin crew will typically work 10 to 15 hour shifts and up to 60 hours a week, according to Unite. Shifts include pre-flight preparations, safety and security checks, boarding, inflight service of headsets, drinks, food, duty free sales and other promotions, such as scratch cards.

"On short-haul flights this process is repeated for in-bound flights after a turnaround of usually less than one hour which includes restocking and preparing the aircraft while under extreme time pressures," it said.

Unite claimed pressure on Thomas Cook crew had increased since the airline introduced an ‘Airshoppen’ service, allowing passengers to pre-order duty free online to be delivered to their seats.

Cabin crew have to sort and bag the orders prior to take off, deliver it to passengers onboard and collect payment. Unite claimed that the service takes up to two hours to deliver.

The strike ballot closed on Wednesday May 25 and could lead to industrial action taking place during the forthcoming half-term school holidays, said Unite.

National officer Oliver Richardson said: "Our members are deeply concerned about the impact these changes to rest breaks are having on inflight safety. Fatigue is a major contributory factor to accidents and slower response times when there is an incident.
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"The primary purpose of cabin crew is the safety of passengers, but instead Thomas Cook seems intent on working them to the bone to extract as much money as possible out of passengers at the expense of safety.

"Our members at Thomas Cook pride themselves on the service they give to passengers and want to ensure they deliver a safe and efficient world class service with a smile.

"However that is becoming impossible after management’s dangerous dictat that they are only allowed one 20-minute rest break during a shift of up to 11 hours 59 minutes.~

"The airline’s repeated refusal to agree to talks and reach a sensible negotiated solution is only inflaming matters. Thomas Cook needs to drop its high handed approach, listen to cabin crew and start to negotiate meaningfully with Unite. Otherwise, its work until you drop, no matter what the cost, ethos will harm passenger safety and customer service."

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