By politics.co.uk staff

Striking staff at six of Britain’s airports could cause summer holiday disruption affecting tens of thousands of passengers, prompting condemnation from the prime minister.

Members of the Unite union voted by three to one in favour of industrial action, giving union chiefs the option of forcing a strike later this month. Shop stewards will meet next Monday to discuss their options.

It follows a dispute with airports operator BAA over a one per cent pay offer, following a pay freeze implemented last year.

Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh are the airports which could be affected by the strikes.

“BAA has constantly ignored the contribution its employees make to the ongoing success of the business,” Unite’s national officer for civil aviation Brian Boyd said.

“Unite members have delivered a strong message that they deserve more.”

Seventy-four per cent of BAA staff who took part in the ballot backed industrial action. Union chiefs said they wanted to “force BAA back to the negotiating table”, claiming talks had been abandoned from as early as April.

David Cameron spoke out against the potential strike earlier, telling journalists: “These sorts of strikes never achieve anything apart from damage – damage to business, damage to jobs, damage to the interests of tourists who want to come to visit Britain, or people who want to leave Britain and have a holiday overseas.

“I very much hope that they don’t go ahead. They will do nothing but harm. We want to demonstrate that Britain is open for business.”

Tensions between workers and management at BAA were exacerbated when workers did not receive a £450 payment. BAA had made the payment conditional on the company meeting a profits target of £1.2 billion. It missed its target by three per cent.