Eurostar bank holiday strike

The summer of discontent worsened today as check-in staff and baggage handlers at Eurostar voted to strike.

Their decision comes on top of the British Airways pay dispute - which threatens to ruin travel plans for hundreds of thousands over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Now union leaders for the highspeed trains connecting London with Paris and Brussels plan to target the same busy period.

The RMT, largest of the rail unions, representing the Eurostar staff, will announce later this week when the 24-hour strike will take place. It is likely to be on Friday 27 August.

The Eurostar staff voted by 2-1 in favour of strike action, on a 75 per cent turnout.

British Airways check-in staff in the GMB union have already voted in favour of industrial action and baggage handlers belonging to the Transport and General Workers' Union are expected to do the same tomorrow after a separate strike ballot in the same dispute.

The GMB said check-in staff would hold a 24-hour strike " sometime" over the holiday, threatening huge disruption at Heathrow and Gatwick on the busiest weekend of the year for air travel.

Union leaders were today preparing to reject BA's latest offer. The airline has offered £1,000 to each employee to try and head off the strike. This would be conditional on staff not being absent from work for more than 16 days in a two-year period.

However, Ed Blissett, national officer for aviation for the GMB, warned of "major problems" with the offer. The unions were still lookingfor an increase "in the basic rate of pay". But he struck a slightly more optimistic note when he said union talks would continue " informally" with BA today, with a formal meeting tomorrow.

He said: "I hope at that stage that we will be able to reach a solution. I am genuinely hopeful that we can reach a solution so that we do not have to take strike action over the holiday. We will explore every avenue."

The RMT's strike ballot was conducted among 150 Eurostar customer services staff at Waterloo and Ashford stations. A union source said a strike would mean "huge disruption to the organisational side of Eurostar".

The union is angry over moves to regrade staff and the £4,000 differential in wages between those working at Waterloo - where the rate is £17,700 - compared with much lower salaries at Ashford. Paul Charles, communications director for Eurostar, accused the RMT of being "disruptive" and vowed that in the event of a strike, replacements would be brought in to keep the trains running. Of the pay differential, he said: "Of course there is a difference in pay between those who work in Kent and in London."