Upcoming Unite Strike at BAA Airports?

They don't have to vote again EVERY time they want to strike. Once is enough for ongoing industrial action until the problem is resolved. After the vote has been done its out of the workers hands and into the unions, and the union can keep it going for as long as they see fit.

Basically they have to give 1 weeks notice of any strike, but they can keep striking for as long as they want/can to get results after the union have voted to. Legally an employer is not allowed to fire an employee for striking until they have been on strike for 12 weeks.

The union are encouraging this, but actually of the 6000 (approximately) members of the union, only around 36% said they wanted to strike, almost half didn't respond at all to the ballot. Now the BAA are going over all the unions paperwork to try to annul the vote, like if they have made a mistake in the voting, or sent it to not ALL the members, or some wording errors etc it will almost certainly have to be done again. This is often the case and it happened at least once with British airways when they went on strike this year.

If all the conditions are approved for industrial action what will probably happen is that this week more negotiations will go on. If negotiations cannot be reached the "target" for the strike is likely to be the August long weekend (the last weekend) as this is a super busy time - people on vacation, coming back for school, work etc. Its unlikely they will go on strike permanently, but instead they will pick certain dates which are the most disruptive. ACAS (the main neutral body for handing industrial disputes and tribunals etc) has agreed to host the talks, and hopefully some agreement will be made.

I also will be flying soon - August 25th - and Im so hoping they don't go on strike. Personally I think its a complete waste of time, everyone is feeling the hardships of the economy, and many of us have not had a pay rise recently. This goes along with a recession. They are making the British public angry, for very little. The offer they got was fairly generous considering the lack of work they have had this year, and to be honest considering at the moment there are 5 unemployed brits for every job, they should be grabbing any offer with both hands, and thanking their employers for not firing them already. UGH it makes me so mad ...

Of course you mean English Law (for England and Wales) where Heathrow is; another 'British' law is Scots Law (for Scotland only). Under English Law a Union must vote for strike, it may not just force its members to withdraw labour. Scots Law may be different, but then you aren't interested in an airport in Scotland; however, you did ask about the whole body of 'British' law so I feel obliged to give Scots Law at least a passing mention.