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Unite steps up campaign to save aviation jobs
Members from Unite will demonstrate outside airports and other locations across the UK from Saturday to demand immediate government support for aviation.
The union is also urging members of the public to send Chancellor Rishi Sunak a digital ‘wish you were here… to save UK aviation jobs’ postcard.
It wants Sunak to keep a pledge he made in March to support the sector. This would allow it to weather the temporary impacts of Covid-19 and protect the quarter of a million jobs it supports directly, as well as the more than one million it supports indirectly.
Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland said: "In March, Rishi Sunak pledged assistance for the UK’s aviation sector, which supports well over a million jobs directly and indirectly and contributes £22 billion to the economy every year. Over four months later, help is still yet to arrive, with thousands of jobs lost as a result.
"The government has ignored warning after warning in the months since the pandemic began and this crucial industry is now facing being devastated, even as other countries have taken decisive steps to protect their aviation sectors. Mr Sunak must follow their example and take urgent action."
Unite national officer Oliver Richardson said: "UK aviation workers, as well as the communities and businesses that rely on the sector, are desperate for Mr Sunak to keep his word. He must provide immediate government support so the industry can weather the temporary impacts of the pandemic and emerge once again as a vital driver of the economy.
"It is also crucial that employers avoid knee-jerk reactions and take the approach of firms such as Ryanair, where redundancies have been prevented by working with Unite on measures like temporary tiered pay reductions and job pooling."
Together with the TUC and all aviation unions, Unite is calling for the extension and modification of the job retention scheme to protect the aviation sector; suspension of Air Passenger Duty and business rate relief for airports, among other measures.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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