Vote for strike called off (Skyport-Heathrow – UK)
July 8, 2011
A CRISIS meeting between union bosses representing Cobalt’s ground handlers’ and KLM management has averted the threat of a ballot for strike action in a dispute over staff flight concessions.
Unite’s warning of a ballot, and the launch of the ‘same team, same rights’ campaign on Wednesday brought Cobalt and KLM’s top brass’ to the negotiating table yesterday.
Cobalt, a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group, has over 800 workers at Terminal 4 providing ramp, baggage and other ground services, of which old employees receive a mix of flight concessions while new workers get nothing.
The unfair treatment sparked a campaign backed by the International Transport Workers’ Federation-affiliated (ITF) unions, in a fight to achieve minimum standards for flight concessions for all workers in Skyteam airlines and their subsidiaries.
Gabriel Mocho, ITF civil aviation secretary, said: “This campaign has grown out of our determination that the multinational, joint nature of the airline alliances must be reflected by equally coordinated representation of the rights of the workers in them.