Around 100 security officers and terminal technicians employed by Birmingham Airport have voted for ‘all out continuous strike action’ from 18 July, according to their union.

The Unite union says that Birmingham Airport workers are striking after facing two years of ‘substantial pay cut’s. Three quarters of the striking Birmingham Airport workers are security officers. The workers say that without a significant pay rise, recruitment and retention issues at the airport will worsen, with the obvious impact on delays for passengers.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Birmingham Airport has returned to profitability but expects its low paid workers to swallow a real terms pay cut after successive attacks on their wages and terms and conditions. This is completely unacceptable at a time of rising living costs.”

A spokesman for the airport told BBC News that they believed that the proposed strike ‘breeches the terms of the bargaining agreement’, under which there should be a second round of talks and the ACAS dispute service could get involved.

However, the spokesman added that they expected the impact of any strike to be limited. “If strike action does take place, we are confident the impact will be limited, and we do not anticipate any cancellations,” they said.

The strikes will  impact Birmingham Airport’s security and terminal maintenance operations leading to delays for carriers such as TUI, EasyJet, Wizz, Ryanair, Lufthansa and Emirates, which has recently started flying an A380 into the airport.