83.2% Vote for Industrial Action

The press understands this problem is not going away. The buying public understand that strikes may occur and are booking elsewhere,

VK has called it incorrectly again and again (see the thread with his misguided suppport of BA when a passenger bitten by bed bugs… more like gaseous Hirondelle or Blue Nun) and continues to put a mendacious spin on it.

The vote for a strike increased – and this is despite another assertion that around 500 people were ballotted in error in the previous ballot!

At least BA appear to be becoming more conciliatory.

A trait of good cabin crew is endless patience, they are in it for the long haul and are prepared to wait it out for a fair and honourable leadership to take control. Hopefully that is Keith Williams.

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ba-cabin-crew-vote-for-more-strikes-2255387.html

Less than 9% of Cabin Crew voted against strike action.

This is a real figure based on exactly the same statistical manipulation used in the mendacious red-top thread.

Over 83% of the premium cabin crew voted for strike action.

Tete de Cuvee

It is self evident that Unite achieved a majority vote in favour of strike action from those members who voted in the ballot. What is not clear is precisely what Unite intend to do having secured that mandate. It is somewhat telling that the union did not announce strike dates immediately and maybe indicates a lack of confidence on their part. An alternative viewpoint might be that the Unite are waiting for the outcome of any ongoing discussions before pressing the strike button. Whatever the reason, if the union wish to follow through with their campaign of attempting to dissuade customers from flying BA, they need to move quickly to keep their story on the main pages. With everything else going on at the moment, this story has already been relegated to the inside pages and in 24 hours will be chip paper. It doesn’t even feature on the BBC News website front page any longer.

Unite are in the invidious situation of the kid who has been bought a shiny new train set, but someone forgot to provide the batteries. They could call strike dates, but know that
a) the majority of cabin crew would work normally and the BA operation would be hardly disturbed.
b) they would need to advise cabin crew on the legal issues around striking – notably provide guidance on whether such action was protected or not. This in turn could exacerbate the numbers who would ignore any strike call.
c) they would need to consider very carefully their own legal position since they could be laying themselves open to action from BA as they have clearly linked this ballot with the previous dispute.

This episode is reminiscent of the ‘new technology’ disputes in the UK newspaper industry in the late 80s. The BA tactic of having a volunteer workforce capable of operating as cabin crew is remarkably similar to Murdoch’s deal with the EETPU. Net result from that was that the ‘spanish practices’ that had gone on for decades in Fleet Street were swept away and newspaper production was vastly improved. I can see a similar end for the BA crew dispute.

An overall fair appraisal Pixelmeister. The vast majority of BASSA members do not wish to strike. They feel they have been forced into the situation not of their making and have no alternative ways to express their frustration and displeasure.

Despite other’s assertions it is clear many people are not booking with BA whilst industrial action is ongoing – especially when there are equally viable alternatives. The dispute not only impacts near term bookings within the current 28 day window but also many months in advance. Why book with BA and take a risk however small, when one can book with the competition and avoid risk?

As long as the dispute drags on, BA is not focussing its attention on the competition; it is paying/wasting large sums for continued legal and strategic advice; it is paying a range of other operators to be “on-call” – despite not being used; it is training large amounts of crew and incurring training costs as well as paying for the over capacity; the company’s morale is rock bottom and reputation will remain in tatters.

Although your analogy with Murdoch is relevant as far as workforce needs to move with the times, it breaks down as Wapping was a highly automated innovation. A manually intensive operation was mainly replaced with an automated one – over 75% of the print operators jobs no longer existed. As in the flight deck where the flight engineer and navigator role has been replaced by computers and the pilots predominantly undertaking a checking and checking the checker roles. There has been no automation of the cabin crew function.

Although many perceive CC as being flying waiters/waitresses in reality it is the cabin crew that resolve or smooth over the myriad of in-flight issues that occur. If it was not for their expertise and people skills, honed over years, BA would be a lot poorer. One benefit of the VCC program has been the significant change of perception wrt the Cabin Crew role – including many pilots admitting they could not/would not handle it.

There are a couple of thousand long term cabin crew who are not members of a union and therefore could not vote. One would expect that these crew would have shown their support for Walsh and signed up for his offer and taken the capped RPI pay increase into their paycheque already. I understand only a small proportion have done this.

To believe the nonvoting cabin crew are in the main supportive of Walsh, as a certain mendacious poster is implying in the title of his red-top thread, is naive in the extreme. Crew not striking should in no way be viewed as supportive of Walsh’s leadership. Success for BA should be its front line team signing up and not how often it can exploit legal loopholes or minimise the impact of a strike.

BA initiated this dispute by imposing change without proper negotiation.. Stating this is going to happen regardless, you can talk about it but it is going to happen.. is not negotiation it is dictat.

How many legacy crew – long term crew on existing contracts have taken the offer?
Am not referring to mixed fleet (who had no choice and signed straight up to the contract), nor Open Skies (who had no choice) nor Gatwick crew recruited on lesser contracts in the first place… but those non-unionised long term crew who have/had a choice between their existing long standing contract and the new one?

Someone should have given a copy of Dale Carnegie’s book to Walsh – it may have prevented this.

Why do BA continue to blame BASSA for their own inability to lead their front line team? Effective leadership 1-0-1 is being able to influence its front line team into following by communicating a compelling vision, inspiring and motivating.
Walsh may have been an ok strategist, a man leader he was not. The current situation is as a result of BA’s failed leadership – it singularly failed to win the hearts and minds of its educated, disparate, front line team and resorted to dictat and bullying, this drove them to seek security in their union.

An effective leader –
•They are honest. This gives them credibility, resulting in the trust and confidence of their people. Credible leaders foster greater pride in the organization, a stronger spirit of cooperation and teamwork, and more feelings of ownership and personal responsibility.

•They do what they say they will do. They keep their promises and follow through on their commitments.

•They make sure their actions are consistent with the wishes of the people they lead. They have a clear idea of what others value and what they can do.

•They believe in the inherent self worth of others.

•They admit to their mistakes. They realize that attempting to hide a mistake is damaging and erodes credibility.

•They create a trusting and open climate.

•They help others to be successful and to feel empowered.

•They don’t push too much. They encourage members to do more, but know when it’s too much.

•They roll up their sleeves. They show the members they aren’t just the figurehead or decision maker. Members respect leaders more when they show the willingness to work alongside them.

•They avoid phrases that cause resentment, reluctance and resistance. For instance, instead of saying you have to do something, effective leaders request or recommend that members do something

Walsh created division and disunity, he failed on all counts barring stating he would use a stick then used the stick.

BA need a people centric leader, not an autocrat. Keith Williams looks to be making an ok start.

“BA initiated this dispute by imposing change without proper negotiation.. Stating this is going to happen regardless, you can talk about it but it is going to happen.. is not negotiation it is dictat.”

Oh, please. This is utter nonsense. BA gave Unite ample time to negotiate and produce their own proposals. However, BASSA and CC89 were too busy fighting with each other (history repeating itself…)

Grow up. Stop pointing the finger and blaming others for a mess if your own creation.

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2010/302.html

i) 24th February – At a National Sectional Panel (“NSP”) meeting Mr Francis told the Union that in the then financial circumstances BA looked to save £82m as against the cost of cabin crew. Throughout Unite had separately identified representatives from both its BASSA and Amicus factions.
ii) 26th February – At a further such meeting Mr Francis handed over a list setting out 32 prospective costs saving measures and invited discussion. Of these measures nine involved reduction in current cabin crew complements.

iii) February – April BA met 14 times with BASSA and four times with Amicus in a mixture of formal and informal meetings.

iv) May – Following release of the figures for the first quarter (see para 12 above) the required costs saving was increased to £140m.

v) 1st June – BA issue a statutory HR1 form proposing up to 2000 redundancies amongst cabin crew. BA and the Union meet at a formal NSP.

vi) 9th – 30th June – Intermittent talks at Heathrow Renaissance Hotel. In the course of such;

a) 15th June BASSA had a heated argument with Amicus and refused to cooperate together
b) 23rd June BA put forward a proposal in writing. This included specific reductions in crew complements
c) 25th June – Unite put forward a written Pay and Productivity Proposal, claiming that it would save BA £173m. It proposed some alterations in the cabin crew complements but no significant reduction. Thereafter BA tried to understand and analyse the cost saving as anticipated by Unite, bringing in accountants, Price Waterhouse Cooper. The latter’s assessment was that the saving would be about £53m. Unite refused to have further discussions over this issue, whether with BA or the accountants.
In the overall result, the meetings broke up without reaching any joint conclusion.
vii) 29th June – Mr Francis sent a letter to each cabin crew member, setting out BA’s proposals, such including a reduction in cabin crew complements.

viii) 21st-23rd July – An abortive session at ACAS.

ix) 21st, 30th September and 1st and 2nd October – Following an agreement reached between BA’s CEO and the Joint General Secretaries of Unite, there was a further sustained resort to ACAS for conciliation. I heard evidence as to the course of events at ACAS and the following emerged. The BASSA and Amicus factions were separately represented and sat in separate rooms. Despite the efforts of ACAS they could not be persuaded to join forces for a meeting with BA. The latter raised the possibility of separate agreements with the respective factions but, understandably, that did not appeal. In the overall result there was no meeting between the Union and BA.

…it’s probably best not to continue posting responses in this thread, as it only continues to give prominence to the inaccurate assertion that 83% of cabin crew voted for a strike…they did not!

Independent – Overwhelming

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/overwhelming-vote-to-strike-by-ba-cabin-crew-2255745.html

Sky – 8 to 1 in favour

http://tinyurl.com/62u4hwy

majority of cabin crew

http://www.terminalu.com/travel-news/british-airways-strike-majority-of-cabin-crew-back-another-walkout/7634/

Try as I might am unable to find a newsfeed reporting let alone leading with VK’s red-top thread statistic of 43%, nor its converse of only 9% figure of all crew against industrial action, as they are both mendacious statistical manipulations.