This strike is shameful. Trade union leaders are out of touch.

The announcement by the leadership of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU) that Border Staff at Heathrow intend to strike on potentially the airport’s busiest day ever is shameful and lacks a true mandate from the union’s members.

The ballot and timing of potential strike action at Heathrow, on the day before the Olympic Games are due to open in the UK, received support from only  1 in 10 of the PCSU’s 16,000 members.

Even though a spokesman for the PCSU admitted on Newsnight that the issues concerned are longstanding, the trade union’s leaders chose to announce the intention to strike at a very high profile time when Heathrow will desperately need trained staff.

Only 20% of the PCSU’s membership voted in the ballot and only 57% voted in favour of taking action. Any strike action would therefore lack legitimacy and show that it is not the ordinary member that drives this.

Yet the leadership of this union seem oblivious to the obvious.  Further, at a time when international news outlets and papers like Der Spiegel are “previewing an Olympics-sized fiasco”, they don’t seem to care what the implications of longer queues, more disruption and higher costs might be for their members and the public.

This union’s leadership seem happy to cause maximum disruption with minimal legitimacy. They are out of touch with their members and the British public.

To arrange an interview with a TFA spokesman on this subject please contact Rory Broomfield, Deputy Director, on rory@tfa.net.