[VintageKrug]

I’m very impressed that both sides see this as a victory.

That can only be good for British Airways (however misguided those who really lost out in all this were, and continue to be).

BASSA’s accounts, anyone?

[pomerol]

VK

Yes, this is very good news for all concerned, British Airways, cabin crew,all employees and of course not least, loyal customers.

Regarding the matter of BASSA’s accounts, I posted this question earlier today, and had hoped that you might be able to shed some light on this, I understood that they had till the 28th. March or April to publish these.

[pixelmeister]

Um… I don’t think the BASSA accounts will be forthcoming. One of the benefits for Unite coming out of this dispute is that the proposed disbandment of BASSA and CC89 to be replaced by a single branch means that the lack of accounts for the soon to be defunct groups gets swept under the carpet. Unite also manage to do away with the somewhat dodgy constitution that certainly BASSA had.

In reality, I suspect that this outcome is what BA really wanted following the 2007 dispute, where Tony Woodley ‘imposed’ a settlement on the BASSA branch. Maybe a new branch will be less dysfunctional – certainly, it could be no worse than its predecessors.

[Discovery-Bay]

Posted by Betty Girl on PPruNe:

Duncan’s view of the deal.

Originally posted by Duncan Holley

What have you got?

A permanent contractual top up payment if you are out of pocket through routes going to mixed fleet – plus a review of fairness of distribution.

Staff travel back in it’s entirety. (Remember that was only happening over WW’s dead body).
No more VCCs
Independant binding arbitration for all discips and sackings
Your union back as before with reps in offices etc
a pay deal the same as the pilots
no new redeployment agreement
A guarantee that your agreements will be honoured as long as you remain employed at LHR as cabin crew.
Transfer rights and part-time tights restored on a vacancy led sytem
In house promotion will continue

There is probably more but I am still trying to calm down after coming in from a fantastic meeting and reading your post, but I will say this to you this my friend –

What you really have got out of this dispute is something that is not tangible, nor will it be of much financial benefit. It is something that money cannot buy – it is called dignity pride and respect and that means because of the stand you took, BA will now be treating you like human beings – you have earned the admiration of the trade union world and even the media who today were full of praise for what we have all done. And finally you will have learnt the value of unity, comradeship and togetherness that can only be achieved by standing up side by side to be counted in extreme adversity.
I have lost a lot of things during this dispute but i am so proud not only of myself but so proud in those of you who had the guts, the courage and the loyalty to back me, back BASSA and most importantly back yourself. I would do it all again, I suspect even with hindsight so would most of you.

[VintageKrug]

What are “part time tights”?:

—–

Originally Posted by The Holley

What have you got?

1. A permanent contractual top up payment if you are out of pocket through routes going to mixed fleet – plus a review of fairness of distribution.

2. Staff travel back in it’s entirety. (Remember that was only happening over WW’s dead body).

3. No more VCCs

4. Independant binding arbitration for all discips and sackings

5. Your union back as before with reps in offices etc

6. a pay deal the same as the pilots

7. no new redeployment agreement

8. A guarantee that your agreements will be honoured as long as you remain employed at LHR as cabin crew.

9. Transfer rights and part-time tights restored on a vacancy led sytem

10. In house promotion will continue

There is probably more but I am still trying to calm down after coming in from a fantastic meeting and reading your post, but I will say this to you this my friend –

What you really have got out of this dispute is something that is not tangible, nor will it be of much financial benefit.

It is something that money cannot buy – it is called dignity pride and respect and that means because of the stand you took, BA will now be treating you like human beings – you have earned the admiration of the trade union world and even the media who today were full of praise for what we have all done.

And finally you will have learnt the value of unity, comradeship and togetherness that can only be achieved by standing up side by side to be counted in extreme adversity.

I have lost a lot of things during this dispute but i am so proud not only of myself but so proud in those of you who had the guts, the courage and the loyalty to back me, back BASSA and most importantly back yourself. I would do it all again, I suspect even with hindsight so would most of you.

[Discovery-Bay]

That certainly is one way to ‘spin’ it!
Others may have different views.
I commend BA for keeping heads down and also keeping a low profile.

[Hippocampus]

Taking each of Duncan’s points in turn:

1. Financially, the monthly travel payment that was on the table before strikes were called was better as it was based on average allowances in the previous year when BA had more high paying routes (ie 2nd NRT, 3rd HKG). The new payment is contractual, which helps if you believe BA would renege on the deal.

2. Willie Walsh had previously offered full restoration of staff travel. This now comes with huge strings attached, including a wholesale restructuring of the branches and a radical overhaul of industrial relations.

3. Not true. The scheme is being extended and will continue, albeit under a different name.

4. Not true. Only uncompleted cases. Those who have appealed to the ET will not be subject to arbitration.

5. Not true. There will be a substantial rebalancing of influence in BA’s favour. For example, BA will no longer require authorisation to activate the Disruption Agreement.

6. Not true. The additional percentage to match the pilots deal is self funding through productivity improvements. This will hopefully also give BA more operational flexibility

7. Can’t comment.

8. BA has always been prepared to do this.

9. BA has always been prepared to do this.

10. BA has always been prepared to do this. Though, with Mixed Fleet and fewer Pursers promotion would be limited. Better performance management of under performers should enhance this however.

What has BA got?

The original cost savings it sought
Mixed Fleet at LHR
A substantial volunteer crew workforce
Some obvious troublemakers out of the door
A complete restructuring of the crew unions and day to day control of its operation
The confidence that never again will BASSA be able to hold a gun at BA’s head and threaten strikes every time BASSA doesn’t get its way.

And on top of all that BASSA think they’ve won. Everyone’s a winner! Everyone’s happy!

Trebles all round!

[NewBAexec]

It seems like they didn’t get what they wanted, to see Mixed Fleet disappear!
So what was the whole point of this dispute then. The union is a joke and have not achieved what their members were fighting for in the first place.
They got back what they lost for going on strike, but they didn’t get what they wanted, hence the reason for striking in the first place!
Mixed Fleet is still there and will eventually take over their work.
How ridiculous!
At least, more than 50% were clever enough not to back the union and went into work.

[Hippocampus]

Reading the article below (see picture byline and comment on crew support for strikes in the text) in my copy of today’s Daily Telegraph, I see that our very own VintageKrug has certainly made an impact on the paper:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/damianreece/8510733/IAG-investors-are-the-winners-after-BAs-cabin-crew-dispute.html

[VintageKrug]

It’s good to see the 43% number was correct all along.

Though this is not a time for gloating.

It’s time for BA, and its largely hard working employees, to get back to business and focus energies too long distracted on Industrial issues back on creating a profitable and service oriented airline which is deservedly at the upper end of customer service and innovation.

[Alasdair]

Firstly, what a pathetic rag to be sourcing Hippo. I agree, BA has been able to achieve cost cutting through implementation of MF and the possibility of limiting future IA. However, to state that the workers have not gained anything is plainly ill-informed.

For the likes of New BAexec, “Irony: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other’s false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning.”

Let me set you straight. Through an extremely strong Union and Union membership (whose membership has decreased only by natural departures and minor run off) who persisted in demanding future GUARANTEES, now this is what cabin crew have. They never demanded anything else… perhaps the opportunity to negotiate initially regarding the implementation of Mixed Fleet etc, but this was done poorly or pig- headedly by BA and strikes resulted.

Hence, under WW up to £300million was squandered to be in the position they are all in now. Civility was never an option.

As passengers, this money was unable to be put back into what is supposed to be a global premium airline, like product enhancements including ensuring first meal choices for premium passengers and sufficiently repairing faulty hard product. Due in part to unnecessary programmes like VCC where engineers have undoubtedly been stretched to capacity and priorities shifted accordingly.

Traveller Plus could by now have little VFM perks as per the competition like champagne and meal differentiation. These are all opportunities wasted by BA management by forcing the hand of the extremely influential cabin crew union who is not necessarily made up of “militants” as purported by the Daily Mail and contributors on various forums.

BA is has always tended to be managed by Accountants and Flight Crew. Not your typical “people” people. And that is exactly what the airline industry is.. a service industry.

Good luck BA, and I hope you can progress fairly in the name of service and staff relations.

[Hippocampus]

Alasdair

You are wrong.

BASSA/CC89 lost approximately 3,000 members since this dispute started (see numbers balloted in first and last ballots), About 900 those are due to voluntary redundancies and 400 due to natural attrition so that’s a substantial number of resignations.

BA has always been willing to offer assurances about Mixed Fleet. Yes you have (some) contractual guarantees but the top up payment in the offer that was on the table before Unite called strikes even though BA and Unite had agreed to put the offer to the membership was financially a much better deal.

As for this being all that crew ever wanted, I thought there were ten items in this dispute, and wasn’t it all about imposition and then about “union busting”?

Unite agreed this deal because they knew any strike would be unprotected. BA told Unite this nearly 12 months ago.

The cost of the strikes was about £120m, not £300m which will be recouped as the savings are permanent.

And finally, calm down, you’ll burst a blood vessel.

[Alasdair]

For all it’s worth, I was referring to lost income due to threat of strikes and “real” costs, which some have put at the figure I gave over the two years of ID.

Actually, the deal does look somewhat better than was proposed with redeployment set to current agreement, and back payment & pay increments to kick-in sometime soon etc..

BASSA was always a sticking point with WW, however, it’s strong and determined membership continued the will to fight for justice. Perhaps BA tried to “bust” it but was never going to be able to see it through.

Anyway, let’s all calm down and just enjoy discussing travel, whether it be for business or pleasure.

[pixelmeister]

Alasdair

Would you not agree that it is rather hard to estimate a figure for the ‘threat of strikes’? Particularly after the 22 days were not exactly successful ? I don’t doubt that there were some people who were dissuaded from flying BA because of the possibility of strike action, but then they may also have been put off flying by ash clouds, possibility of terrorism, hole in the ozone layer etc. The proof would be in the revenue figures woudn’t it. Don’t recall BA doing that badly in the second half of last year.

I’m not aware that any change to the redeployment agreement had been proposed in previous offers by BA. If BA had been suggesting a change to it, why didn’t the union ballot on that as grounds for strike action ? The basic pay deal offered is the same as was put forward last year and accepted by the non-union cabin crew. The only carrot this time around is a bit more cash, but this will be dependant on improved productivity targets bekng met.

BASSA’s strong membership is a novel way of describing the 47%+ who either didn’t vote or voted against industrial action. It is also ironic that the people who are killing off BASSA and CC89 are the Unite leadership. How do you square that with the accusation that BA was attempting to ‘bust’ the union ?

The mistake that BASSA made throughout this dispute was assuming that it was personal. Given that WW had agreed changes with Unite for other workgroups, it is patently obvious that he didn’t have an axe to grind with the parent union. However, the whole steer by BA management on this dispute has been on the business and commercial aspects. It was BASSA that went for making WW a bogeyman. The comforting thought is that BASSA would have demonised whoever was leading BA at the time, because they refused to look at the harsh business realities. BASSA were either unable or unwilling to appreciate that the company was in severe financial straits and needed to do something fast.

I think that this dispute will mark a sea change in the way that workers relate to unions. The old 70’s style confrontational approach by the unions has been shown to be outmoded. Unions now need to be more co-operative and work with employers to improve working practices.

[Hippocampus]

BASSA has itself admitted the strikes were a failure:

Wonga you ask the reason why we agreed to drop the cases? Well in a nutshell here is your answer
– It was part of the negotiated settlement. This is how it works!
BA say you can have your ST if you drop the litigation.

Our thought process goes along the following lines – as litigation would not automatically mean we get it back and the decision could take years, we reps decide it is worth accepting.

This is how negotiaions work – you have got to give something to get something. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush type of decision and one that makes perfect sense.

Remember we did not win this dispute, we did not have the company on its knees begging for mercy, had everyone gone on strike and no VCCs had turned we would have been in a much stronger position and perhaps got both the ST back and pressed ahead with the litigation but as strong as we were we failed to get much of an upper hand. In fact with everyone apart from the Queen and the Pope on Willie’s side it was is a miracle we have got what we have.

[Author]

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