Both Unite the Union and the GMB union have reacted to news that there is a possibility of redundancies among Swissport staff at Edinburgh and other airports.
Unite represents the majority of Swissport employees at Edinburgh Airport where around 300 employees are based. A redundancy process is now in effect at Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow and around 1,000 jobs in the UK could be at risk.
The Swissport employees are ground crew and baggage handlers.
Sandy Smart, Unite regional industrial officer, said: “More than a third of the Swissport workforce at Edinburgh Airport face redundancy which would be a devastating blow. This would represent around 120 people facing unemployment in the coming weeks taking the tally to more than 200 across Swissport’s operations in Scotland. Unite repeats our call for the company to halt this redundancy process and talk to us in order to find solutions to keep people in work across all three airports. Solutions are being brought forward and routes reestablished which we believe makes these announcements totally unnecessary.”
The airline Flybe collapsed last week and the UK government promised assistance for Flybe staff, but now there are calls to extend that help to those not directly employed but nonetheless affected.
Nadine Houghton, GMB National Officer, said: “Up to 1,000 Swissport jobs are now at risk from Flybe’s collapse – that’s on top of thousands more directly employed and in the wider supply chain.
“But many of these can be saved it airlines who’ve shown interest in taking on regional routes put their money where their mouth is, get on and do it.
“The Government needs to do everything in its power to make the transfer of routes and the saving of jobs as easy and painless as possible.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
