Thomas Cook crew want jobs action

26/10/11

By Kev Kiernan

Cabin crew at the Thomas Cook holiday firm have overwhelmingly voted to take industrial action for better redundancy terms over plans to axe 500 workers.

Unite union members took part in a consultative ballot and are now set to discuss the next move.

The company employs around 1,500 cabin crew who are Unite members.

Union officials said 475 of the workers voted for action and 53 voted against it.

The members at Thomas Cook work out of airports in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, the East Midlands, Gatwick, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle and Stansted.

Unite's Mick Whitley said: "The overwhelming vote shows our members' anger and should be a strong wake-up call for management to return to the negotiating table with a fair offer.

"Until we have had the meeting tomorrow, Unite is not going to speculate about Christmas flights by Thomas Cook.

"The ball is very much in the management's court. They need to come up with a realistic offer for those facing redundancy."