Taxi War Chaos Narrowly Averted at Heathrow as Unite Wins Breakthrough

LONDON - 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 their 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“We’re extremely glad that BAA has seen sense and withdrawn their competition plans.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.

Source: Unite the Union

For further information contact Peter Kavanagh on +44-(0)7980721422 or Jim Kelly on +44-(0)7929-008758.