UK air traffic controllers plan summer strikes

Millions of holidaymakers face the threat of serious disruption at Britain's airports at the height of the holiday season as air traffic control staff call for strike ballots.

Ministers fear any walkouts taking place at British airports in late July and August would be disastrous. The Government has privately urged National Air Traffic Services trade unions and management to agree a swift pay deal to avert the threat of disruptive summer strikes.

Both sides have been pressed to find a speedy solution ahead of a meeting on Wednesday between Nats and the air traffic controllers' union Prospect.

There were "positive signs" of a willingness to do a deal during negotiations last week, David Luxton, the union's aviation officer, said. The union leadership, unwilling to cause unnecessary heartache for travellers, is reluctant to strike if a way forward can be found.

But Mr Luxton warned: "While we were encouraged by the more positive tone and I am more optimistic, there is considerable pressure on us from our members wanting us to go straight into an industrial action ballot."

Air traffic controllers voted by a margin of four to one to reject the latest Nats pay offer. They said a rise of 2.2 per cent for 2002 was "unreasonable" at a time of unprecedented change to the air traffic system. It was, the union said, a "real blow to morale".

"After the considerable upheaval they have been through, it is not an adequate recognition of their pressures," Mr Luxton said.

The Government is officially not involved in the negotiations, according to the Department of Transport. But ministers are understood to have made it clear that strike action must be avoided.

Minds were concentrated further by the general strike in Spain on Thursday, which caused disruption to around 80,000 Britons planning to travel to or from Spain or the Canary Islands.

The heightened pressures on air traffic controllers, now operating from their new centre in Swanwick, Hampshire, were highlighted last week when a full investigation had to be launched into an incident in which two British Airways jets, carrying 300 passengers and crew, missed each other by just 200ft. It appears that a crucial piece of equipment at the new £623m centre failed.

The Government is also seeking to avert strike action in other public services.

In a series of private talks with union leaders in Downing Street, Tony Blair has appealed for calm as disputes over pay, privatisation and job cuts threaten to prompt a massive wave of industrial unrest.

Postal workers will ballot this week. London Underground workers will start voting the following week on a series of stoppages over safety, and the RMT rail union has set 10 strike dates in the Arriva Trains Northern pay dispute. Firemen are also demanding a new pay deal with the threat that a ballot on strike action might be called.

Added to this is the possibility of more than a million local authority staff walking out over pay.

The new militancy among public sector workers could spell a difficult summer for the Government – and for the public – if attempts to quell discontent fail.