Stansted Airport employees unhappy with easyJet and other aviation employers demonstrated at the airport yesterday. They had been prevented from demonstrating near the terminal building and airline passengers. I took the train to the airport and eventually found them by a roundabout beyond the employees’ car park.

I chatted with Claire Lees, the Unite union’s regional organiser and with Mark Barter, Unite’s officer for Stansted Airport. There is deep discontent with easyJet for threatening staff with redundancy whilst taking central government funding and handing out £millions in dividends to shareholders. Hence, their slogan “orangeOutrage”.

I agreed to their request to try to set up discussions with Uttlesford District Council over airport employees’ plight and the impact on the local economy of airport job cuts, which are likely to have a knock-on downside for the local economy and  businesses. This would be the case if easyJet uproots its aviation support services from Stansted and simply uses the airport as a runway for picking up and dropping off passengers.

The photographs below show a section of the demonstration and Claire Lees and me (suitably masked).