Let's see. There was the ground crew strike at Heathrow when I was on a theater trip to London in high school.
I also fell victim to a strike in London...a "go slow strike" by the Gatwick airport workers who check you in at customs. I had been up all night before I left, and was already tired. It took us several hours to get through customs, and there were a lot of people like me who figured they'd make a stop at the loo after they got off the plane. It was hot and some people in line were fainting.
The airport staff sent in some people to give us water. Well, we were all very thirsty but at the same time we had to PEE and there was no restroom before customs! They also sent someone dressed in a clown outfit around to entertain the kids while they waited. Needless to say, we were not amused.
When I finally escaped to the waiting room, my editor friend who had picked me up had already left because they'd told him my plane had cleared an hour ago and he figured I had missed it. And he had driven a long way, so he wasn't home when I called him. I was so upset that the man at the pay phone next to me asked if this had caused me any inconvenience. Well, I won't type my response since this is a family site.
It turned out he was a reporteer for one of the London tabloids and the next day I was in the paper in the story "Go Slow Strike Hits Fly-In Yanks". Since I had flown there from NY (I had been attending the New Music Seminar) I thought that he assumed I was a northerner. My editor friend explained that they call all Americans "yanks".
The reporter offered me a ride into London, but I ended up taking the train and my friend picked me up at the station in London.
