Liverpool easyJet demo

Campaigners will hold a demonstration tomorrow at Liverpool airport over easyJet’s plans to close operations at 3 regional bases and shed 1,290 cabin crew jobs nationwide.

The protest will take place at 1.30pm at Liverpool, John Lennon airport, Speke, L24 1YD on Wednesday, August 5.

easyJet has announced plans to close its operations at Newcastle, Southend and Stansted airports and shed 1,290 cabin crew jobs nationwide.

Unite members are angry that while their jobs and incomes at the airline are under attack, easyJet paid £174 million in dividends to shareholders at the start of the Covid-19 crisis.

The company has also secured a government funded load of £600 million yet is pressing on with a large-scale cuts and closure programme.

In addition to the proposed job losses and base closures, Unite members are angry the easyJet CEO has misjudged the start of the Covid-19 crisis by criticising the “hype going on around the virus” and encouraging “business as usual”.

They has also criticised how he has attempted a ‘smash and grab’ of cabin crew pay, terms and conditions and has tried to bypass easyJet’s recognised trade unions Unite and pilots’ union BALPA, by proposing “coronavirus co-operation agreements” directly to staff, who categorically rejected them. 

Unite regional officer Lindsey Olliver said, “Campaigners alongside easyJet staff are staging protests across the country to expose the misery these redundancies will cause while hurting the regional economy and connectivity.

“easyJet must rethink and halt these closures and redundancies but the government also has its part to play to support the aviation sector, which has been one of the industries worst hit by the pandemic,” she added.

“The aviation industry is essential to the future prosperity of the UK’s economy and it is vital that the government steps up to the plate and provides specific support in line with other nations.”

By Ciaran Naidoo