Edinburgh Airport: Tanker drivers' pre-Christmas strike threatens to disrupt flights
A strike by tanker drivers just before Christmas could disrupt flights from both Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.
Grangemouth-based drivers working for Turners (Soham) Limited will resume strike action this week in a long-running pay dispute impacting fuel supplies to major airlines operating from the two airports.
Following previous strike action in October and November, the Turners drivers will strike for four days on December 11 and 12 and December 22 and 23.
Their union Unite says there is “an ongoing impasse” in talks with the company, which are being conducted through the auspices of the conciliation service Acas.
Unite says the company has refused to improve on a real terms pay cut amounting to one per cent for 2025 at a time when the broader inflation figure stands at 4.3 per cent.
Turners has proposed a pay offer in the following year based on the CPI inflation rate in January 2026. The two-year offer was overwhelmingly rejected by Unite’s membership.
Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “Turners continues to treat its highly skilled drivers with contempt because that’s what their miserly pay offer amounts to.
“Turners is a very profitable company, yet it thinks its drivers deserve a real terms pay cut. That’s unacceptable. Unite will back our members at Turners all the way in their fight to secure better jobs, pay and conditions.”
The current RPI inflation rate stands at 4.3 per cent. Unite says Turners recently recorded after tax profits of £51.42m in 2024 which follows the £51.06m profit for the year ending 2023.
Unite industrial officer, Lyn Turner, said: “The Grangemouth drivers’ dispute is a result of Turners making huge profits, but it believes our members should not share in the financial success that they have created.
“Strike action will continue throughout December, and we will have no option but to continue fuel supply disruption to airlines based at Edinburgh and Glasgow airports into the New Year. Turners should be under no illusions that our members will not give up, and they will not give in.”