Military Personnel Take Over Passport Control as Border Force Workers Walk Out on Strike

Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union on the picket line at Gatwick airport. Picture date: Friday December 23, 2022.

MILITARY personnel took over passport inspections at Britain’s biggest airports today in a desperate government attempt to keep passengers flying as Border Force immigration workers walked out on strike.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) are staging targeted strikes after suffering years of real-terms pay cuts.

More than 1,000 passport control staff stopped work today at Heathrow, Gatwick, Cardiff, Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham airports and at the port of Newhaven in Sussex.

Pickets in action with placards and union banners reported support from the public, despite inevitable delays and disruption.

At Manchester, PCS Home Office group secretary Mike Jones told the Morning Star: “Spirits on the picket line are good — no Border Control members have crossed.

“Our members have suffered 10 years of real-terms pay cuts. This year they have been offered 2 per cent and people right across the Civil Service have had enough.”

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that armed forces personnel would be receiving daily bonuses of £20 after tax for covering the strikes between December 19 and January 2.

Strike action also hit Department of Work and Pensions jobcentres, driving test centres, the Rural Payment Agency and Highways Agency.

About 170 Border Control workers are based at Manchester Airport, the biggest airport in northern England.

Mr Jones said: “There’s been a really good response from the public, with drivers giving us ‘peeps,’ thumbs up, and some coming over for a chat.”

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said travellers could face months more disruption unless the government “does the right thing” and puts forward better pay proposals.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We think that the action at the borders is going to be very effective.

“We hope that the government will therefore do the right thing and get around the negotiating table and put some money upfront.

“If not, we are raising money. We have a strike fund that means we can sustain this action.

“Our strike mandate lasts right up until May. We will be supporting this action up to May and we would reballot again if we have to.”

He said January could see a “huge escalation” in strikes by Civil Service workers and across the economy “unless the government gets around the negotiating table.”