Aberdeen workers vote on strikes
- Unite opened strike ballots for about 900 workers at Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports, putting Scottish summer flights at risk if pay rows persist. - The biggest group is roughly 500 staff at Edinburgh Airport and Menzies Aviation, with smaller ICTS ballots at Aberdeen and Glasgow. - Any walkouts would hit the June-July World Cup travel surge and Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games, raising pressure on airport operators to settle.
Airport workers in Scotland are not on strike yet. But the machinery for a messy summer just started moving. Unite has opened industrial action ballots covering about 900 workers linked to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports, all tied to separate pay disputes with airport and aviation service companies. If those votes come back yes and talks still go nowhere, the timing could land right on top of the busiest travel stretch of the year. ### Who is actually voting? This is not one giant airport-wide vote. It is a cluster of ballots across different employers. Unite says the groups include around 370 workers employed by Edinburgh Airport Limited, around 280 ground services staff employed by Menzies Aviation at Edinburgh and Glasgow, about 70 ICTS workers balloted. ### What jobs do these workers do? They are in the parts of the airport that passengers feel fast when something breaks. Edinburgh Airport Limited staff in the ballot include airport ambassadors, airside support officers, engineers and managers. Menzies workers include dispatchers, allocators, airside agents and concourse back office. These are operational roles that can slow or stop the whole system. ### Why does Aberdeen matter here? Aberdeen is the smallest piece of the story by headcount, but it is still part of a coordinated pressure campaign across Scotland’s main airports. Unite says about 70 ICTS members at Aberdeen are being balloted over what it calls an unacceptable pay offer. On its own, that is a local dispute. Combined with parallel ballots at Edinburgh and Glasgow, it becomes a broader threat to Scotland’s summer air network. ### Why are unions pushing now? Because timing is leverage. The ballots opened in early May, which leaves room for strikes to hit the peak holiday period if negotiations stall. Unite is openly framing this around summer demand, and around major events that will drive extra travel through Scottish airports and beyond. That is the point — employers feel more pressure when delays are expensive and highly visible. ### Which dates make this especially sensitive? The 2026 FIFA World Cup starts on June 11 and runs to July 19. Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games run from July 23 to August 2. So even though the disputes are in Scotland, they overlap with two big travel windows — outbound trips for World Cup fans and inbound pressure around the Games. Edinburgh’s Fringe also sits later in the same broad summer crunch. ### What are the companies
