Saturday, September 20, 2008

City Airport and AIG: Uncertain Times

After a tip off from an anonymous source some months alleging that redundancies were already occuring at London City Airport, it appears the current staff base continues to be anxious about who they will be working for in the future. We asked Rupa Haria, PR assistant at London City Airport to confirm or deny the alledged redundancies over 2 months ago - but to date we have had no response. Cllr Christine Bowden, Deputy Mayor of Newham was also asked by residents in Newham to look into the issue of redundancies at London City Airport - but once again no response has been received to date.

In an article in the Telegraph entitled "London City airport jobs in the air as AIG battles for survival" written before the US federal reserve came to the rescue of the ailing AIG, a major shareholder in LCA it raised possible consequences for London City Airport.

What is of greatest concern is that City Airport consistently use jobs for the carrot and stick approach with Newham Council and other government contacts - this is despite their utter failings in providing the type of job growth that was promised over 7 years ago. If redundancies have occurred already - isn't the stick and carrot of job creation just yet another smokescreen of disingenous claims being made by London City Airport? Shouldn't they be concentrating instead on retaining the staff they have and avoiding the alleged redundancies that have already taken place? Perhaps that is a utopian thought when in reality the business only cares for profit making for it's shareholders.
And here's more food for thought: such moves as installing self 'check in' stations don't increase jobs or the need for additional staff - they reduce the need for staff. Yet more hypocrisy.