Iberia strike

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 38 total)

  • Anonymous
    Guest

    Henkel.Trocken
    Participant

    I have a feeling this will be long and bloody and there will be no winners.


    ViajeroUK
    Participant

    I guess IAG were expecting this, makes the axe easier to swing?


    JohnHarper
    Participant

    Seems like the strike has been called off by the unions until after Christmas:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20669718


    transtraxman
    Participant

    The arguments used by the press and commentators in Spain at the moment clearly lay the blame for the situation in Iberia at the door of BA. Great weight is given to the fact that BA made a profit last year of over €300 million while that was about the loss at Iberia. They say that before the merger Iberia was profitable every year while BA was in a mess. (Implying what…??)

    That last statement is true but from there to then accuse BA of dismantling Iberia is way off the mark. In the interim BA has done its homework and is seeing the light at last. Iberia has been sitting on its hands and has done nothing – except(last March) start up Iberia Express – until now with the suppression of loss making routes.

    The press reported recently that Iberia is losing market share to/from the all important Latin American market. The strong competition comes from bigger and stronger Latin American carriers. At the European end Star(especially TAP and LH) and Skyteam(especially Air France) carriers are more aggressive, particularly with Air Europa(Skyteam) expanding from Madrid Barajas. Couple this with the downturn in the Spanish economy and then Iberia is in real trouble.

    Iberia-IAG have averted a strike at a critical moment but it has only been postponed. They have a strong need to win the arguments but not with a heavy hand. Iberia is too strong a brand to be thrown overboard. Iberia has to get across its viewpoint and show the commentators that they are wrong. However, the lesson does go to show that jingoism is still alive and kicking with strong attachments to legacy carriers. And it is so easy to lay the blame at somebody else´s door !!!! (echos of Cristina Fernandez and Hugo Chavez)


    Henkel.Trocken
    Participant

    I have a feeling that once Christmas is over the IB unions will be less accomodating.

    I agree with all transtraxman says about the perception in Spain of IB’s woes and right or wrong, minds will not easily be changed. That Bully Boy Walsh

    (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20676667)

    is at the helm will only serve to make things worse I guess.


    Hippocampus
    Participant

    The strike was called off because the two sides are in mediation with a third party.

    If the unions play hardball in the New Year January is the perfect time for Iberia to shut down the airline and lock out staff.


    VintageKrug
    Participant

    I have a feeling they will be less accommodating, however, they can strike all they want; IAG’s not for turning, and will negotiate a settlement which delivers the best possible outcome for employees in the very straitened circumstances Iberia finds itself in.

    It’s not like Iberia couldn’t terminate and re-hire both pilot and cabin crew communities in a heartbeat if it wanted to, particularly given the current economic situation in Spain.

    The corporate modus operandi in dealing with militant threats (and the Unions are the ones bullying their own members to certain redundancy) has already been proven to work, and work well.

    This personalisation of industrial relations is not helpful, but then we have seen a resurgence in the same old characters on this forum, so I suppose we just have to live with the misguided noise from those with a grudge to bear.

    Personally, I would suggest it’s probably time these bitter characters “moved on”. Unless they have very little else to move on to. 😉


    Henkel.Trocken
    Participant

    Oh dear, even in Spain pilots are not sitting on the shelves waiting to be hired back on inferior terms and conditions. They also have laws which prevent exactly that happening and they are less favourable to employers than the laws in the UK.

    Kneeinthegroin Walsh may just find that his tactics don’t work in quite the same way in Spain, after all, he is up against both the pilots and the cabin crew together and I suspect their unity is strong. He hasn’t got the time to play salami tactics so the outcome will be interesting.


    VintageKrug
    Participant

    The option of shutting the airline and re-hiring under Iberia Express or similar entity always remains available; if there’s no viable company to work for, then no amount of Socialist claptrap will keep people in a job.

    The cost base has to be addressed, and it will be.

    There are literally thousands of qualified, available pilots who would be keen for a role at a carrier like Iberia, and as Mixed Fleet has demonstrated with its recent “excellent” rating by Tom Otley, being a great cabin crew member doesn’t take £50,000 a year and twenty years to bed into the job. If you’d been to Spain recently you’d know that unemployment is hitting younger people hardest, and many would jump at the opportunity to travel the world and turn around Iberia’s customer service reputation as cabin crew, as has been found to be the case here in London.

    Once again, the union dithers, misrepresents the interests of its members, while its leaders get fat off the proceeds and customers – and ultimately the employees themselves – suffer.


    Henkel.Trocken
    Participant

    Krug, perhaps you would be kind enough to sight your source for your comment that the Spanish unions are dithering and misrepresenting the interests of their members and also that their leaders are getting fat.

    I’d also be interested to know where the thousands of qualified and available pilots are.

    I haven’t been able to find that information.

    I agree, on the basis of Mixed Fleet, you can drag anyone off the street, pay them peanuts, dress them up in a uniform and call them cabin crew and watch them behave like monkeys. Whether you would want to or not is another matter.

    It may be that Bruiser Willie (or should that be bruised after old beardy puts a knee in his groin) doesn’t get all his own way this time. That will provoke a tantrum.


    transtraxman
    Participant

    H.T
    VK is right. The unions in Spain do get fat without looking after the interests of their members.

    Firstly, they are subsidised heavily (as are the employers´ associations) by the government. The monies they have received (a lot from Brussels) for retraining their members (just as all the politcal parties and the employers´associations) is creamed off for their own benefit. This is a scandal which has been long known but is only now coming to public notoriety.

    Secondly, there is a great political battle going on at the moment between the ruling (conservative)PP and the losers at the last election 12 months ago, the socialist PSOE. The unions are part and parcel of this and are playing a disgraceful political battle to try to bring down the government. They are not looking after the interests of their members. The last thing Spain needs at the moment are strikes.The fiasco of the national general strike of Nov.14th last plays testimony to the real lack of support that they can muster. That together with the results of the recent Basque and Catalan regional elections show that the public are not fooled by the self-seeking members of political parties and unions.

    What does this mean for Iberia? Probably the vast majority of the employees will take early retirement or whatever is offered. The real bad guys are the pilots (in their union SEPLA). They know they are highly qualified privileged individuals who in most cases can find employment without too much effort. Thus they could well go for broke. The air traffic controllers were broken last year by strong handed measures by the government. The pilots, in the end, will find the same. My point is that IAG has to win the argument, not just break the unions, if it really wants to turn round Iberia.


    FirstClassWannabe
    Participant

    IB pilots are amongst the highest paid in the world and the waiting and cleaning staff, oops sorry, the cabin crew are also treated very well (old style BA type contracts). Times are changing. IB has an awful, and deserved reputation for customer service. Passengers are treated as an inconvenience and cabin crew rush to get dinner served, drink and dinner at the same time, this on a 12 hour flight! There are of course excellent and professional IB cabin crew, but I think they are few and far between. If they had been nicer and gave better service perhaps they would not find themselves in their present position as more pax would have travelled with them.


    jayjay007
    Participant

    firstclasswannabe,i couldn’t agree with you more

    we flew IB about 3 times in teh last 6 years -business class -allways got the treatment you describe

    well,no more to IB!

    when is crew going to get in their minds that without passengers,there’s no revenue,thus ,no jobs!

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