Baggage Handlers at Heathrow Airport Go on Strike

If you fly, how a lot thought do you place into your baggage? The logistics of each single bag making it from level A to B to C, with out lacking flights or getting misplaced, are staggering. Certain, baggage handlers get the blame when your stuff is misplaced or broken, however do they get the credit score when all of it arrives intact and on time? Extra importantly, do they get their honest pay?

Not in line with them, they don’t. So, for the following three days, 350 baggage handlers at Heathrow Airport in London are hanging for pay charges that higher sustain with inflation. The strike covers three full terminals, so be careful should you’re flying American Airways, Air Canada, Austrian Airways, Air Portugal, Egypt Air, Aer Lingus, Finnair, Lufthansa, Swiss Air, or Qantas.

The strike started early this morning, and can final via the weekend. Somewhat than hanging in opposition to the airport immediately, baggage handlers are going up in opposition to Menzies — a third-party operator, supplying Heathrow with labor. Two different labor suppliers on the airport, Dnata and Menzies Cargo, not too long ago got here to pay agreements with their respective employees as a way to avert collective motion earlier than the World Cup weekend.

The strike comes on the tail of a protracted, tough yr for Heathrow. The airport has been so tormented by points that it requested airways to cease promoting tickets only a few months in the past. Due to poor administration early within the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s been inundated with misplaced worldwide baggage — and now the very folks dealing with that baggage will likely be becoming a member of a picket line as an alternative.

Air journey isn’t any stranger to harsh working situations, lengthy hours, and low wages. Perhaps, if Menzies acquiesces to its employees’ calls for for extra equitable pay, it’ll really be capable to rent extra people. I’m wondering what that may do for all that misplaced baggage.