Any FTers arriving into LHR or LGW on June 30? Strike day?
 

As the title of this thread may hint, I am.

Guess the best laid plans to avoid the strikes, by coming home in September before the promised "Autumn" and "Winter of Discontent" didn't count on suddenly having a general strike on June 30, long after plans were set.

After reading in the paper that the Immigration/Border staff are included in the public employee group expected to strike (or not, but we'll find out), I wrote to BA to ask what they would advise travellers coming in on a flight needing to clear immigration.

I'll cut to the lead: They just said "watch this space" essentially. And check for updates in their travel news section.

Not a surprising answer. But wanted to ask the question anyway.

Why am I beginning to get visions of 747s and various big birds piled up at stands Thursday morning, not allowing pax to get off, because the immigrations halls were already full and nobody there to let them through?

So, guess all we can do is "watch this space" on the BA travel news. Sigh.

(And hope for the best on Thursday of course, whatever public employee portal one has to traverse.)

We are scheduled to arrive LHR on the evening of the 29th and depart on the 30th. Should I be concerned?

Google is not helping me at all. Do you have any information or links to help keep me informed? If we are likely to get stuck in London I will make different plans and pack differently than if we are just there for an overnight layover.

Nobody knows how big this strike is going to be or if it's going to be a big bust and nobody strikes. It's an unknown right now. All that hyperbole that "this is the biggest strike since the General Strike of 1926" might be true. Might not. Who knows?

It seems mostly to be centered on teachers taking a day off to protest, but it's also a "public employees" call to action over their pensions.

But if the June 30 strike disrupts commuter travel in anyway, imagine how hard it will be for flight crews, cabin crew and airport staff to get to the airport on June 30 to work--even though they aren't on strike themselves. That's where I see the potential disruption for the airports on June 30--lack of crew, ground staff to get flights out of there and lack of border agency personnel to get incoming flights through immigration will undoubtedly be a problem if the strike really is big.

Follow bbc.co.uk web site and click on "news." Look for headlines about June 30. Also www.telegraph.co.uk newspaper. Less so www.dailymail.co.uk because they often get stories rather wrong. So not that reliable on the detail. Also, www.skynews.com has a web site with text to read, even if you can't access their live video reports.

And of course the workers' rag: www.guardian.co.uk

They live for strikes! LOL

If you happen to have a Virtual Private Network that can allow you to watch the BBC and SKY NEWS live tv coverage from their own websites, then they will have updates as well.

But if no VPN, the above web news sites and newspapers will be following it as it gets nearer.....

Meanwhile BA ain't talkin'! And why would they? Thousands of people planning to fly in that day are completely unaware of this unless they follow UK news closely. If BA put something on their web site about this now, everybody and his dog would be phoning them wanting to change the dates etc. So I understand why they are playing it cool.

All they can do is react anyway. It's BAA's and the Border Agency's airport, not theirs. BA are as stuck as we are if a big strike actually occurs.

Am hoping it's a tempest in a teapot. But we'll see. I hope to get out to Ireland on July 1 after one night at the Sofitel T5. But....sigh.

i'm waitlisted for the flight back from GRY on Wed so landing LHR on Thu AM. Can't say I'm too worried about the strikes, maybe if others get worried they'll cancell and i'll clear my waitlist!

I should be arriving at LGW from VCE on Thursday evening on the 2585.
Hopefully by then it will be clear how many people are supporting the strike and how much of a shambles things are. If the strike is well supported, I wonder if they'd be brave enough to just open the gates and let people in without being checked?

I have a family member transiting LHR on the way to EDI on the 30th so I will be following the news on this more than I care to.

The border agency are training managers to cover the desks. This could result in there being more immigration staff than normal on duty - depending on how many do strike of course. But don't worry.

I had a day trip to EDI on the 30th, I have changed it to the 28th just in case.

I'll be coming back from CDG on Thursday evening, but I'm not too worried.

Will IRIs be working? Not sue about leaving my (non IRIS) colleague in a mile long queue though (will try to register him when we go out).

Good luck with that - maybe just co-incidence but IRIS registration has been unavailable on my last 12 trips out of T5 (yes, I've been counting...)
Ah well try again tomorrow just in case those queues are nasty when I arrive back from ORY on Thursday evening...

Above all else, don't believe everything you read online. Especially if you don't know the nature ad competence of the source.
Otherwise, you might believe some ridiculous bit of complete misrepresentation such as this:

Do you honestly have any clue about what you are talking about?
Make no mistake, where you fall on a political spectrum doesn't bother me, but misrepresentation does - it undermines democracy.

I am flying in from DUS on Thurs evening, and I do hope the IRIS machines are not on strike too!

Wasn't IRIS terminated altogether?

as far as I can tell, one or other machine is on strike most of the time....though I have not noticed them inform of the results of their ballot :D

The scheme is to end, but has not yet!

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And IRIS registration was indeed closed again...
Is it ever open in t5?

I'm flying into LHR on BA118 from BLR, connecting to BA269 to LAX. The transit time is 3 hours 35 minutes. I will not be going landside, simply connecting. Will this strike affect me in any way (can my flight be cancelled due to lack of cabin crew, for example?)

Difficulties in crew and employees getting to work, I think.

Unless I am mistaken, you will simply go to flight connections as you will not be 'entering' the UK
and thus no need to pass through immigration. 3+ hours is plenty of time.

Not quite sure why there would be a lack of cabin crew as this is supposed to be a public sector
strike and not BA cabin crew.

H

Why? I'm not aware of a public transport strike being planned.
From what I've seen in the media so far, the only staff who may have problems are parents who would have to look after children if schools close.

Don't know, just echoing some previous posts :p

I'm due to be returning to the UK early morning of the 30th... can't change my plans so I guess I'll just have to pray that IRIS is working.

I am wondering why I haven't heard anything about borders/immigration being affected by this strike outside of FT though (almost all the coverage seems to be about teachers)... surely it's likely to have pretty visible effects?

More than one type of strike!
 

The "strike" problem may come in many forms. Not just at the airport, but it had also involved getting to the airport. This thread from another forum might help explain things:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/u-k-i...strikes-2.html

ps - before you read all the way to the end, the proposed tube strike for the 30th seems to have been called off.

And something similar from the Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...day-chaos.html

I may be getting thick in my old age, but I don't understand why, if the Border Control Staff are on strike, there should be delays in entering the UK? Surely if any staff are working they are scabs, blacklegs and strike breakers (add your own pejorative)? If it is a 100% strike then one could just walk through the border area? :confused:;)

Its going to be interesting to see how many go on strike with such a low turnout in the voting process.

As for letting people in, it would appear to the Daily Mail that they do that anyway.

as an aside, could I just mention that not all teaching unions are on strike, if a school has a majority of staff in the other unions then there is every chance the school will be open

Sounds as though some of us are going to be in a pickle come Thursday.

We are being urged not to fly that day, but some of us cannot change our plans at this late date.

I was surprised to hear that the Border Agency were unionized and could strike in the first place. They are the defense of the country's borders. It just seems odd that this is a position so critical to national security and safety is considered discretionary....as in you don't have to show up if you are on strike. So, it's open borders in the UK on Thursday then? Whooppee!(Okay tongue in cheek but still...)

How is this going to go then? No f'erners get in that day? Only a few get in? We sit on the planes on the Tarmac and cannot get off, because the arrivals hall is full and nobody else can join the queue?

This is going to be interesting. I just hope the Sofitel doesn't give my prepaid room away if I take all day trying to past the "border" when the Sofitel is under pressure from stranded pax.

What a daffy duck picnic.

Good luck everybody!

Don't be too surprised because even the firemen can go on strike in England...

Good luck to those flying in tomorrow. Hopefully it will be much ado about nothing, as some strikes
tend to be these days.

H

Thanks, Hoch. I know alot of these weenie roasts do come a cropper sometimes....

Maybe alot of folks who could change their flights plans will do. Unfortunately, I couldn't, needing to be in Dublin by Friday.

I'm not surprised everybody can strike in the UK. It's in the DNA by now. Every country certainly has a different approach to employee relations born from their particular histories.

Alas, the US air traffic controllers found out about the non-strike law for Federal employees when they called Reagan's bluff in 1981 and got fired on the spot and banned from ever having another Federal job for life.

No matter how much the ire of the everyday person in the UK is piqued by this particular strike, I cannot imagine any laws being changed to favor the public over unions. Just IMHO. But we'll see.

Especially not with the LibDems in the coalition. There will prolly never be an appetite for that, no matter how much the Autumn/Winter of discontent affects the everyday person. Just a guess.

The whole societal ethos of the strike culture in the UK may be too strong for any reforms, even if the voters want them. But time will tell of course.

Just a simple "Good Luck" for everyone flying tomorrow ... we will be interested to hear how it goes [or doesn't].

Fly Safe ^

Border control officers apparently went on strike at 6pm tonight...came into T3 tonight (around 8pm) and there were pretty long queues at passport control (though difficult to tell if they were worse than normal as always quite bad!!). The EU line was also pretty long with 2 desks open (out of 5 in total I think). Luckily there was no queue for IRIS and both machines were working - used it and was straight through despite last time I tried to use it a few weeks ago at T3 it told me my registration had expired.

I'm on the BA1387 MAN-LHR shuttle in the morning.

Not too sure how this might potentially affect domestic compared to international/EU pax though. Hopefully things will run relatively smoothly for all.

MAN-FF

Any update from LHR this morning ?
I'm due to arrive at 5pm tonight...let's hope Iris scan will be working.

BBC News is reporting that LHR is operating normally.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13957122

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Post-Thatcher, the UK has one of the weakest union movements in the EU. The "strength" is a fraction of what it once was. Also, I find your reference to "unions" and "the public" somewhat odd. Retaining a right to collective organisation and bargaining and withdrawal of labour isn't something the Libdems came up with, it's simply seen as a right by the vast majority of the population. The fact that strikes haven't been commonplace in the last decade and that industrial relations have been generally benign reflect the strong economy and rising wages. I suspect if the austerity measures continue to bite, you'll be surprised at the level of activism and the level of public support.

Oh for goodness sake, as you seem to well know, they are not a 'defensive force', they are administrator and officials.

For the benefit of anyone else reading this who is not being silly, of course it is not open borders!

Sounds like a typical American 'lets try to be a as tough as we possibly can be' over reaction, no matter how silly it makes us look in the process.
Little wonder the rest of the world thinks the US is nuts and unable to organise itself!

I suspect if I demanded a 32 hour work week my boss would fire me as well! Not to mention that the strikers agreed to a resolution, signed it, then backtracked and demanded more than 3x what they had just gotten. I'm sure the Americans overreact regularly, but I tend to think that getting fired was a nice solution, as they were also breaking the law and could have been sent to jail.

Additionally, the "lifetime" ban ended in 1993.