Union calls off strike at Stansted Airport

Two proposed strikes by luggage scanning staff at Stansted Airport will no longer go ahead, the GMB has confirmed.

Members of the union had threatened to carry out two four-hour strikes on Monday (September 29) and Thursday (October 2) due to a protracted dispute over pay.

Although no resolution was reached, GMB organiser Gary Pearce said that the union had called off the industrial action to "demonstrate good will".

He reiterated his organisation's hopes that a new development would help solve the dispute, but appeared to give no indication that a further strike is in the offing.

The 34 Airfield Services employees have previously staged two strikes and a separate August walkout by baggage handlers was only averted at the eleventh hour.

Their complaint centres on a two per cent pay rise which the GMB insists is less than other airport workers have been offered, as well as being significantly below the rate of inflation.

Meanwhile, Faroe Islands-based carrier Atlantic Airways has confirmed that is abandoning its route from Stansted Airport to Shetland next summer.

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