Every strike we’ve covered on this site this year has hit the same two groups: air traffic controllers or general ground handling crews. Gatwick’s latest dispute is neither. More than 220 assisted travel workers employed by Wilson James, the contractor that runs wheelchair assistance, boarding help, and aisle-chair transfers for passengers with disabilities and reduced mobility at Gatwick, announced eight strike days over a pay dispute with Unite the union: September 17–21 and September 23–26. That’s a first. None of this site’s prior strike coverage has touched the staff who get passengers with disabilities on and off the plane, because until now, nobody providing that service at a UK airport had walked out.

Except — as of a few hours before this went up — they haven’t walked out yet, and might not. Wilson James came back with an improved offer, and Unite has paused the action to let members vote on it. Here’s what’s confirmed, what’s still moving, and what to do if you or someone you’re traveling with needs special assistance through Gatwick this month.

Quick Verdict — Status as of Sept 14, 2026

Factor	Detail
Planned strike dates	Sept 17–21 and Sept 23–26, 2026
Current status	Suspended — Unite paused action pending a member vote on a new offer
Workers involved	220+ Wilson James assisted travel staff, Gatwick
Union	Unite
Dispute over	Pay: workers rejected 3.4% + 0.6% bonus + 0.5% pension for 2026, then CPI+0.5% in year two
If it goes ahead	Slower boarding/disembarking for passengers needing mobility assistance; delay risk on short- and long-haul departures
Ballot result timing	Not yet announced by Unite

What to do now: Don’t assume you’re safe just because the strike is paused. If you or a travel companion has assistance booked for Sept 17–21 or 23–26, keep your contingency plan ready until Unite confirms the vote outcome.

What’s Actually Happening Right Now

Here’s the timeline, because it moved fast. Unite announced the strike dates earlier in September after pay talks with Wilson James stalled, following negotiations that had been running since May with no deal. Members unanimously rejected the company’s offer. Strike notices went out for two blocks: five days from the 17th, then four more from the 23rd.

Then, close to when this post published, Wilson James tabled a new offer, and Unite regional officer Ben Davis said the union had “paused industrial action to allow members to have their say on whether they accept this.” That’s a suspension, not a cancellation. The original dates are still sitting there. If members vote the new offer down, the strike could resume on the same dates, get rescheduled, or restart with fresh notice — Unite hasn’t said which. Until there’s a confirmed result, treat both blocks of dates as at-risk.

This is also why we’re not calling this dead: Gatwick has been through this pattern before this year, with other contractor disputes suspended at the last minute only to flare back up once a vote failed. A pause is good news. It isn’t a resolution.

Why Are Wilson James Workers Striking?

Wilson James workers are striking over a pay offer they call inadequate given the company’s profitability. The rejected 2026 deal offered a 3.4% pay rise plus a 0.6% non-consolidated bonus and a 0.5% pension uplift, followed by CPI+0.5% in year two. Wilson James posted £17.43 million in profit before tax last year, and its highest-paid director’s pay rose 38.7%, from £483,000 to £670,000, in the same period. The lowest-paid Wilson James staff at Gatwick earn £14.71 an hour.

That gap — director pay climbing by more than a third while frontline offers sit at 3.4% — is the entire dispute in one sentence. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham put it bluntly in the union’s own strike notice: Wilson James is “a highly profitable company which can more than afford to put forward a pay deal” that reflects it. Gatwick Airport Ltd, which contracts Wilson James to run the service, posted £464.2 million in profit before tax of its own in 2025 — worth knowing, since Gatwick isn’t the employer here but is the reason the service exists at all.

Gatwick’s own position, for what it’s worth: a spokesperson said the airport is “working with our assisted travel provider, Wilson James, to avoid any impacts and we expect to operate a normal flight schedule.” That’s the airport’s hope, not a guarantee, and it doesn’t say anything about wait times if the strike does happen.

What Counts as “Assisted Travel” Work — and Why That Matters Here

Assisted travel staff handle the physical process of getting a passenger with a disability or reduced mobility from the terminal to their seat and back: wheelchair pushes through the airport, boarding via aisle chair or high-lift equipment, and help down the jet bridge or steps on arrival. It’s specialist, hands-on work that airlines and airports are legally required to provide, and it’s a different job entirely from the check-in or baggage-ramp roles covered in most airport strikes.

That distinction is what makes this strike unusual, and worth planning around differently than the Rome security and ground-handling strikes or Belgium’s ATC walkout we’ve covered elsewhere. A general ground handling strike slows bag loading for everyone. This strike, if it happens, specifically slows the one service that a subset of passengers has no alternative for. You can’t self-serve a wheelchair transfer the way you might carry your own bag to avoid a slow belt.

What Happens If the Strike Goes Ahead?

1. Longer waits for pre-booked assistance at both departure and arrival. Fewer staff on shift means the same passenger volume spread across a smaller team.
2. Delay risk on the flight itself, not just the assistance process. Boarding a passenger who needs an aisle chair or lift takes longer than standard boarding — multiply that by a reduced crew, and gate departure times slip. Gatwick has said it expects to run a normal schedule, but slower turnarounds tend to cascade into the next rotation regardless of intent.
3. Both short-haul and long-haul departures are exposed. This isn’t a single-terminal or single-airline issue — it’s tied to whichever flights have passengers booked for assistance that day, across Gatwick’s full schedule.
4. Arrivals are affected too. Disembarking a passenger who needs assistance can hold up the aircraft at the gate, which affects the next flight scheduled for that stand.

None of that means assistance won’t happen. UK airports are legally obligated to provide it. It means the process could take meaningfully longer, and connections booked on tight windows carry real risk.

Your Rights If Assistance Is Disrupted

UK airports are required to provide special assistance to passengers with disabilities and reduced mobility under the Civil Aviation (Access to Air Travel for Disabled Persons and Persons with Reduced Mobility) Regulations, enforced by the Civil Aviation Authority. That obligation doesn’t disappear during a strike — Gatwick and Wilson James still have to provide assistance, even if slower than normal.

If your flight itself is delayed or cancelled because of the strike, that’s a separate question governed by UK261, the retained post-Brexit version of the EU rule. Ground-service strikes have generally not qualified for the “extraordinary circumstances” exemption in past UK and EU rulings, since contracted ground staff (assisted travel staff included) sit inside the airline’s normal operational chain rather than outside it. That’s a meaningfully stronger position than, say, an ATC strike, where airlines usually win that exemption. Ask for a cash refund or free rerouting, not a travel voucher, and file a complaint if the assistance itself — not just the flight — falls short of what you were promised. The Airport Accessibility Performance report is where the CAA tracks exactly this kind of service failure, and a formal complaint on a strike day feeds into that record.

For the flight-delay side specifically, the airline delay compensation and travel insurance guide walks through how to file once you’re home, and a card with trip delay coverage can reimburse meals or an overnight stay independent of whatever the airline eventually pays out.

Your Action Plan Before September 17

1. Confirm your assistance booking directly with your airline, not just Gatwick. Airlines are the ones who book Wilson James services on your behalf — a booking made weeks ago is worth reconfirming now given the disruption risk, even with the strike paused.
2. Check back for Unite’s ballot result before you travel, especially if your flight falls in either date block. A “paused” strike can un-pause with days of notice, not weeks.
3. Build in extra time at both ends of your journey, arrival and departure, if you’re flying in either window. Even a normal schedule with reduced assisted-travel staff means longer processing time than usual.
4. If you’re connecting through Gatwick on a tight layover, consider whether a longer connection window is worth rebooking for. Assistance delays at one leg can cascade into a missed connection on the next.
5. Document everything if assistance falls short — wait times, what was promised versus delivered, staff you spoke with. That record matters for both a CAA complaint and any UK261 claim tied to a resulting delay.
6. Say “cash refund,” not “travel voucher,” if your flight is cancelled and the disruption is tied to the strike. Ground-service strikes have a stronger compensation case than most.
7. Keep receipts for anything you pay out of pocket because of a delay — a trip-delay credit card benefit can cover it separately from any airline claim.

The Bottom Line

This is the first strike this year to hit the workers who physically get passengers with disabilities and reduced mobility on and off Gatwick flights, not the ATC or ground-handling staff most of this site’s strike coverage has been about. Right now it’s paused, not gone: Wilson James put a better offer on the table, and Unite members haven’t voted yet. If they accept it, September 17–21 and 23–26 pass without disruption. If they don’t, the original eight days are still live. Either way, if you or someone you’re traveling with has assistance booked at Gatwick this month, reconfirm it, build in extra time, and don’t take “normal schedule” as a guarantee until Unite actually confirms the vote.

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Information current as of September 14, 2026. Strike status can change quickly — check Unite’s strike updates and confirm directly with your airline before you travel.