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Border Force staff at Manchester Airport set to strike over Christmas

"The government can stop these strikes tomorrow if it puts money on the table."

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 8th December 2022

Border Force officers at Manchester Airport are set to stage strike action for eight days over the Christmas period.

As the UK continues to see industries and unions calling industrial action left, right and centre at the moment, with the army now even said to be “on standby” as the country prepares for rail, postal, nursing, ambulance, and lecturer strikes throughout December, staff working in the Border Force at Manchester Airport and several others are to walk-out over Christmas.

PCS Union has announced that its members employed by the Home Office on passport control will take action at Manchester Airport, as well as London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports.

Around 1,000 Border Force staff will walk-out at these airports on 23, 24, 25, 26 28, 29, 30 and 31 December 2022.

The strike action comes after 100,000 PCS members in 214 government departments and other public bodies voted to take strike action, the PCS Union explained, and also follows several other public sector strikes announced by the Driver and Vehicle Standard Agency (DVSA), Rural Payment Agency (RPA), National Highways, and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

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In all, 86% of PCS balloted members voted in favour of strike action across 124 government departments and public sector employers.

The industrial action set to be taken by Border Force staff is over a 10% pay rise, pensions justice, job security, and no cuts to redundancy terms. 

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“The government can stop these strikes tomorrow if it puts money on the table,” explained PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka ahead of the strike action set to take place.

“Like so many workers, our members are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. They are desperate. They are being told there is no money for them, while they watch ministers giving out government contracts worth billions of pounds to their mates.

“Some sections of the media have accused us of playing politics with these strikes but let me be clear – our dispute is with the employer. 

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“We will fight to improve our members’ pay, terms and conditions regardless of who is in Downing Street.”

Border Force officers at Manchester Airport are to strike for eight days over Christmas / Credit: Phil Mosely (via Unsplash)

As Christmas is known to be a busy time at airports across the UK, the strikes by Border Force staff are very likely to lead to longer queues at passport control, the Home Office has warned, and airports are now advising travellers to check the status of their flights before travelling.

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The Home Office has explained that the strikes are likely to affect people returning to the UK rather than departing.

The length of delays will depend on how well the Home Office can fill the staffing gaps.

Featured Image – gov.uk

News

95% of Mancs apparently want the city to be ‘cashless’, new study reveals

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Contactless payment

An eye-opening new study has found that only 5% of Mancs still use cash as their preferred method of payment nowadays.

It comes as no surprise that cash is less of a ‘king’ nowadays than it used to be, but now a new report by global financial technology company SumUp has suggests that only 5% of people in Manchester prefer to pay with cash, while 59% choose debit and credit cards, so that leaves one question… is Manchester on its way to becoming a cashless city?

To discover how payment preferences are evolving, SumUp conducted a nationwide survey to gather insights from UK consumers about their payment habits.

The company was particularly intrigued to not only discover payment methods people prefer, but what their concerns around certain payment methods, alongside how they feel about businesses that don’t accept digital payments.

95% of Mancs apparently want the city to be ‘cashless’ / Credit: Mylo Kaye (via Unsplash) | Pexels

Firstly, before we go any further, it’s important to note that almost two thirds (63%) of Manchester residents said they have changed the way they make payments over the past year.

Unsurprisingly, debit and credit cards remain the top choice for the majority of Mancs, with over half (59%) saying it was their preferred method of payment, followed by mobile payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay at 24% – which is likely thanks to their ease of use and the ability to have multiple cards on one device.

While a third (31%) of Mancs said that they ‘don’t mind’ cash and still opt to carry it for situations where digital payments aren’t an option, a growing number of people in the city are feel that digital payments are more favourable, with 25% thinking that businesses should adapt to modern payment methods and whilst 28% finding it ‘inconvenient’ when a business doesn’t accept digital payments. 

A further 11% of people even say that cash-only businesses wouldn’t be an option they’d consider, and would actually avoid them wherever possible.

Card payment
Only 5% use cash as their preferred method of payment / Credit: Rawpixel

When it comes to concerns around digital payment methods, where do Mancs stand then? Well, the survey found that a third (33%) of people are worried about their reliance on technology, especially being unable to pay if their phone dies, for example, while an additional 32% of people are concerned about security risks such as hacking, fraud, or stolen card details.

Among other things, 26% of survey respondents also said they worry about the privacy aspect of digital banking and the tracking your data.

“While debit and credit cards continue to dominate as the preferred payment method, it’s clear that cash is slowly declining in use, particularly among younger generations,” Corin Camenisch, who is the Marketing & Growth Lead at SumUp, commented on the report.

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“That said, cash still holds its place for many.

“Looking ahead, we can anticipate a rise in innovative payment methods like digital wallets, especially as younger consumers increasingly embrace the convenience and flexibility they offer.”

Featured Image – Pavel Danilyuk (via Pexels)

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Met Office predicts UK is set for ‘hotter than average’ summer

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Sunbathing in the park

The Met Office is predicting that the UK is set for a ‘hotter than average’ summer this year.

Fresh off-the-back of the news that 2025 is already the hottest spring on record, with a recorded 630 hours of sunshine from 1 March until 27 May, beating out the previous sunniest spring in 2020 by just four hours, the Met Office is now predicting that the UK is on the verge of a summer that’s ‘hotter than usual’.

According to its three-month outlook, the Met Office has predicted that it’s 2.3 times more-likely than ‘normal’ that it will be hot in the UK between 1 June and 31 August.

The average temperatures during those months are set to range from 10-17°C.

After it was revealed that this has also been the UK’s driest spring in more than a century, meteorologists are warning Brits that there could heatwave conditions could be reached at various times throughout the summer.

The release of the long-range forecast – which gives an indication of possible temperatures, rainfall, and wind speed over a period as a whole – comes after temperatures soared to 8°C (46F) above the average for this time of year this Saturday just gone (31 May).

It is important to note, however, that the Met Office thinks these predicted temperatures are similar to those in recent years, and it does not guarantee ‘prolonged’ hot weather.

The Met Office is predicting that the UK is set for ‘hotter than average’ summer this year / Credit: Mylo Kaye (via Unsplash)

The Met Office said in a statement: “While the current three-month outlook shows an increased chance of a hot summer, the temperature signals for this summer are similar to those for recent years and consistent with our warming climate.

“The increased chance of hotter than average temperatures is not a guarantee of prolonged hot weather or heatwaves, but it does mean that heatwave conditions could be reached at times.

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“However, it’s important to bear in mind that an increased chance of hot conditions could also reflect a mix of hot and cool days, warm nights, or less extreme levels of warmth rather than continual heatwave conditions specifically.”

Featured Image – Garry Knight (via Flickr)

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