Turners tanker drivers’ strike to hit airline fuel supplies at Edinburgh and Glasgow airports

UPDATE: 17/10/2025

Fuel deliveries to Edinburgh Airport (EDI) are expected to be disrupted from tomorrow as tanker drivers based at Grangemouth, employed by Turners (Soham) Limited, begin strike action in a dispute over pay. The walkout will also affect Glasgow Airport (GLA), with both major Scottish airports likely to experience an impact on airline fuel supplies.

The strike is due to start at 02:45 on 17 October and will continue daily until 23:59 on 21 October, following the collapse of talks between Unite the union and Turners at conciliation service Acas. The dispute centres on what Unite has described as a “miserly” one per cent pay offer for 2025, alongside only minor proposed improvements to working conditions and allowances.

Turners has also proposed linking pay for 2026 to the CPI inflation rate in January of that year, a two-year deal that Unite members have overwhelmingly rejected.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Turners is driving our members towards strike action by its continual refusal to improve upon what is a miserly pay offer from a very profitable company. We will fully support our members in their fight to secure better jobs, pay and conditions.”

According to Unite, the latest inflation rate stood at 4.6 per cent in August, while Turners reported after-tax profits of £51 million for the year ending 2023.

Unite industrial officer Lyn Turner added: “Unite has tried to engage with Turners to bring this dispute to a positive conclusion. Unfortunately, the company is intent on escalating this pay dispute to the point where strike action will now be inevitable due to its penny-pinching. We are in no doubt that if these Grangemouth based tanker drivers are forced to take strike action, then it will significantly hit fuel supplies to airlines at Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.”