UK Passport Control Strike | Travel Research Online

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UK Passport Control Strike

 

Strike Hit Stop Work Stamp Word IllustrationBah humbug.

British passport control workers will be the newest class of workers to go on strike today, in a move bound to slow things for US travelers trying to enter the country.

About 1,000 passport control workers at six airports—Heathrow, Birmingham, Cardiff, Gatwick, Glasgow, and Manchester, and the port of Newhaven in East Sussex—are expected to walk off the job between December 23 and 26, and again between Dec. 28 to 31, over demands for higher wages amid rising inflation. In the busiest travel year since 2019, 1,290 flights are scheduled to land at the affected airports on Friday, carrying more than a quarter of a million passengers.

Heathrow Airport has reached an agreement with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. to halt ticket sales on most inbound flights on the strike days, The Wall Street Journal reports, and the British military will step in to man the immigration counters. But still, Border Force head of operations Steve Dann noted that the “contingency workforce will not be able to operate with the same efficiency as our permanent workforce” and “people should be prepared for disruption.”

And once you arrive, be careful with the eggnog—it’s surely not a week to drink and drive, cautions the National Health Service. Wage disputes are spreading across the UK, and nurses and ambulance paramedics, as well as postal workers, driving instructors, and train drivers, also are planning strikes.

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