Heavy Bags Campaign by Heathrow Workers

Many of my constituents work at Heathrow airport. Large numbers of them are involved in handling the bags of passengers as they pass through the airport. Often this can involve lifting and moving extremely heavy suitcases and various items of luggage, sometimes in very confined spaces. As a result many airport workers have suffered from back injuries. Anyone who has had a back injury can tell you how painful and debilitating this can be.

This risk to health and safety can be avoided if the weight of suitcases and luggage bags is kept to a reasonable weight. The maximum reasonable weight is judged to be 23 kilograms. This is a sizeable bag and should be capable of accomodating a reasonable amount of luggage.

The UNITE union, which represents workers at Heathrow and the country’s other airports, has launched a campaign to secure a limit on individual cases of 23 kilos. The union is asking the Government to support this limit.

I went along to Heathrow airport to support my constituents in this campaign. I believe that it is a reasonable request that would not inconvenience many passengers but would save a lot of my constituents from painful back injuries.

I interviewed Ian Surrey, the UNITE campaign organiser about the 23 kilo “Lighten It” campaign.

submitted by John on 13 Nov 2008 at 23:48