No Service For Ghana Airways, As....

....Heathrow baggage handlers and check-in staff to strike for 48 hours in pay dispute

Air travellers face disruption at the country's busiest airport this weekend with hundreds of baggage handlers and check-in staff preparing to stage a 48-hour walk-out in a protest over pay.

Workers employed at Heathrow by Swissport will walk out for two days from 4.30am on Sunday, in an action that will hit up to 20 airlines including Ghana Airways

The airlines that will not be handled by Swissport during the walk-out are: Air China, Cyprus Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Ghana Airways, Hellas Jet, Kibris (Turkish) Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Middle East Airlines, Qatar Airways and Syrian Arab Airlines.

Some flights may be diverted to other airports and it is possible that others will be cancelled because of the walkout, which will affect Terminals One, Two and Three and the Cargo Terminal at Heathrow.

Flights by the 20 airlines served by Swissport represent less than 10 per cent of the airport's daily schedule.

Swissport said yesterday it had explained to the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), whose members are taking strike action, that it was facing "severe problems" and needed to restructure the business.

But a TGWU spokesman said that many Swissport workers have received no pay rise for 18 months and that company officials had walked out of talks earlier this week.

TGWU national officer Brendan Gold said: "The company has consistently failed to address the issues put forward by the workforce.

He added: "Instead of seeking to work things out so that a united force of management and workforce can develop the business in what are tough times in aviation, we have been faced with an inexperienced [management] team who have simply walked away."

However, Swissport claimed that the TGWU had insisted that a pay rise should be given before changes in the business were discussed. According to the company, pay had risen by between 9.5 per cent and 17.5 per cent over the past two years. But, a spokesman said, the union was now seeking a "totally unrealistic" increase of 16 per cent.