Taxi war chaos narrowly averted at Heathrow as Unite wins
breakthrough
11th July 2009
Chaos for passengers has been narrowly averted at one of the
world's busiest airports thanks to the intervention of Unite, the
UK's biggest union.
Unite had been pressing Heathrow's management at the British
Airport Authority (BAA) to withdraw their plans to introduce two
private hire concessions in the terminal car parks. The
union, which represents licensed black cab drivers operating at the
airport, said that the proposed mini cab concessions would spring a
war for passenger trade that would clog up the airport's roads
causing tremendous disruption for passengers trying to get in and
out of the airport.
BAA had been determined to press on with their plans, however,
and was set to force them through in September.
Unite had warned BAA that various forms of direct industrial
action would follow beginning this Monday (July 13th), which would
have had a serious impact on the entire airport operation, unless
the airport operator listened to reason and dropped its
competition proposals.
Peter Kavanagh, Unite senior regional organiser, who led the
talks with BAA said: "This was a hare-brained scheme that should
never have seen light of day. There is no way that passengers
would benefit from a taxi bidding war which would have clogged up
the airport's roads and just brought confusion to passengers who
want an efficient, easy to access service they can trust.
"We're extremely glad that BAA has seen sense and withdrawn its
competition plans. We hope BAA has learned from this that it is
better to work with us on any future ideas for how the taxi service
at Heathrow can maintain its quality service to passengers."
Unite represents Licensed Taxi drivers in London and throughout
the UK.
ENDS
For further information contact Peter Kavanagh on 07980721422 or
Jim Kelly on 07929 008758.
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