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Air chaos fears after talks fail
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Air passengers are facing New Year misery at airports including Heathrow and Gatwick after talks to avert a series of strikes ended without agreement.
Leaders of the union Unite met for several hours with the airports' owner BAA on Thursday to try to resolve a row over pensions but the dispute remains deadlocked.
No further dates have been set for negotiations although union officials stressed there is still time for another attempt to head off two 24-hour and one 48-hour strike in January.
The first 24-hour walkout is due on January 7 followed by another strike on January 14 and a 48-hour stoppage from January 17 at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports.
A union spokesman said the company had refused to back down over a controversial decision to close its final salary pension scheme to new entrants.
"As things stand, the industrial action set to begin on January 7 will go ahead," said the spokesman.
The union has warned that all seven airports will close if the strikes go ahead because they involve crucial staff such as firefighters, security and maintenance workers.
The union members voted by more then 2:1 in favour of industrial action last week in protest at the pensions decision which the union said had been made without negotiation by the Spanish owners of BAA, Ferrovial.
The union stressed it had held off from taking industrial action for the Christmas period but made it clear on Thursday that the strikes will go ahead unless the company changes its mind.
The travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers will be ruined if the strikes go ahead.
