Workers at six UK airports, including Heathrow, have voted for strike action over a pay dispute.
Security staff, engineers, firefighters and support staff employed by BAA at its six British airports voted three to one for strike action, their union Unite said today (August 12).
Unite, which is also in dispute with BA, must give BAA a week's notice of any stoppage.
But this means the airports could be plunged into chaos over the British Bank Holiday weekend of August 27-30, one of the busiest times for travel in the year.
Besides Heathrow, the other airports owned by BAA are Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
The dispute is over the offer of a 1% pay rise plus 0.5% increase which is conditional on changes to a sickness agreement by BAA.
Unite said the offer fell short of its members' expectations.
The union said it had balloted 6,185 staff but just about half, 3,054 voted. Of these 74.1% called for a strike.
The union said any strike action would cause the airports to close as firefighters are essential personnel for the running of an airport.
Brian Boyd, Unite's national officer for civil aviation, said: "Last year BAA's employees accepted a pay freeze to help the company because they understood the difficult financial operating environment within civil aviation.
"A pay offer of 1% plus the withdrawal of two payments worth over £1,000 is simply confrontational.
"BAA has constantly ignored the contribution its employees make to the ongoing success of the business. Unite members have delivered a strong message that they deserve more."
Brendon Gold, also a Unite national officer for civil aviation, said: "This ballot result reflects what our members feel about BAA's current attitude.
"For the past four months BAA has refused to even meet with us. BAA is doing passengers a great disservice by allowing this dispute to get to this stage. We are therefore calling on BAA to return to the negotiating table with a fair offer."
Unite will be meeting with its key representatives on Monday (August 16) to decide what form of industrial action union members will take.
BAA said in a statement: "We regret the uncertainty this vote has already caused our passengers and airline customers.
"We hope that the union will engage with us quickly to conclude an agreement.
"Fewer than half of those people eligible to vote have done so and we do not believe this result provides a clear mandate for strike action."
www.unitetheunion.org www.baa.com