[Anonymous]

[Rob.Bedcrew]

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Unite gives notice to BA of a new ballot of cabin crew members

A new ballot of cabin crew at British Airways will shortly get underway, the crew’s union Unite has today (Tuesday) informed the airline. This will be the fourth ballot of the same workforce at the airline in a two year period.

The new ballot follows moves last month by the airline to derail the vote conducted in December 2010 by the Electoral Reform Services, which saw 78 percent of Unite’s crew members vote in favour of strike action by three to one.

Unite claims that systemic anti-union activity, the undermining of negotiated agreements and the vindictive removal of staff travel concessions by the company, is preventing headway in negotiations. Since 2010, 18 members of Unite have been sacked and another 70 suspended, including a third of the local union leadership, as the airline targets trade union members.

In a letter sent to all the union’s members at BA, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey writes: “If BA’s management believes that it can secure industrial harmony by these methods it is living in a fools’ paradise. Only negotiation, not litigation or intimidation, can start to heal the wounds caused by this dispute.

“However, given the on-going failure of British Airways management to take its employment relations seriously and start negotiating, we have today given the company formal notice of this fresh ballot.

“We have made every effort in prolonged negotiations to resolve this dispute. Throughout we have been guided by our representatives. If we could achieve a settlement then peace would at long last be at hand.

“BA management needs to understand that it will never break the spirit of cabin crew, and that customer uncertainty and confusion will continue until it starts listening to its staff.”

The ballot will open on Tuesday, March 1st and close on Monday, March 28th.

[Potakas]

Just to add that:

”In the event that the ballot finds in favour of industrial action, the earliest Unite could undertake strike action would be April 4, 2011. ”

[VintageKrug]

No uncertainty at all.

[Potakas]

Agree with VK, I have just booked a return to JFK, return to ATH and a return to BCN. All of the on April and they start from EDI , as in previous strikes I’ll get to my destination, ok maybe with not the same flight i booked but i will get there. The only thing that can disturb me is the in flight service but i’ll be ok

[Alasdair]

I wouldn’t particularly like my flights crewed with the likes of engineers, IT workers and possibly internal terrorists within BA which was exposed during the previous strike. Rather part with my cash for an experience on a reliable, respectable airline.

[MartynSinclair]

VintageKrug’s reputation is on the line here, so I will on this occassion go by his post in which he stated the IA was all but over! I will find the quote if required, but I too have put my faith in the BA schedule (& VK’s posts) by booking for Asia again in April and yes on the upper deck.

[Rob.Bedcrew]

Easter has become the latest target of the cabin crew representing British Airways cabin crew.

23 Feb 2011

Unite has given the airline a week’s notice of a fresh strike ballot – the fourth in two years – with the result due to be declared on March 28.

A yes vote would pave the way for industrial action in April, hitting not only Easter, but also the Royal Wedding on April 29.

In December 78 per cent of cabin crew, who took part in the ballot, endorsed a call for industrial action.

But Unite was forced to set aside the vote because of a legal challenge by the airline.

Officials within the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (BASSA), Unite’s cabin crew branch, had been drawing up plans for guerrilla action.

It was aimed at causing maximum damage to the airline while having minimal impact on cabin crew taking part in industrial action.

Options included calling stoppages and then cancelling them at the last minute, leaving the airline having to pay both regular crew and other members of staff, including some pilots, who took over from strikers.

Last year 22 days of industrial action cost BA an estimated £150 million. Although the airline succeeded in keeping most of its planes in the air, there were still hundreds of cancellations.

It also did huge damage to BA’s reputation and Unite believes uncertainty over industrial action will hit the airline’s bookings at one of the busiest periods of the year.

However the strike also hit BASSA, which has lost 2,500 of its 12,780 members in a year.

Agreement is understood to be close on the causes underpinning the original dispute, BA’s demand for changes in working practices.

But the sides are far apart over action taken by the airline during the series of strikes last hear, including the removal of the staff travel perk.

“If BA’s management believes that it can secure industrial harmony by these methods it is living in a fools’ paradise,” Len McCluskey, Unite’s new general secretary, told union members.

“Only negotiation, not litigation or intimidation, can start to heal the wounds caused by this dispute.”

A BA spokesman condemned the latest strike threat. “Apart from a tiny minority of hardliners, everyone now wants this dispute to be over. It is time for Unite to reflect the mood of its members and seek to promote discussion, not disruption.

“Should there be any further industrial action, we will implement our well-established contingency plans. We will fly a full schedule at London City and London Gatwick. We are also planning to fly 100 per cent of our Heathrow long haul operation and a substantial part of our Heathrow short haul schedule.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/8341451/Easter-faces-threat-of-BA-cabin-crew-strike.html

[pomerol]

If we have learnt anything over the last 12 month’s, it is that their is generally a long way to go from calling a Ballot to going out on Strike, indeed Unite/Bassa’s administration appears to be in such disorder, that they find it very difficult to get past the Ballot stage.

It would be nice to know what the Bassa membership count is of today, they seem to be very quiet on this since they stopped publishing them on their website last November, also of interest would be the publication of Audited Accounts of Bassa.

I would be very surprised if any Strike action actually takes place, but even in the event that it did, I think it would have virtually no effect at all on schedules.

[rgale77]

Does anyone now if BA have better contingency plans for providing food. beverages on Long Haul flights?

We flew F during the last strike and a pretty sad sandwich was all we were given between LAX and LHR!

Surely microwave training could be given to some of the stand in cabin crew.

Lets hope the strike does not happen.

[Binman62]

Booked to the USA in First and no intention of altering my plans. Crew need to understand that this is a futile last stand of a wholly discredited union and a minority of bullies.

Targeting the Easter Holidays of thousands of hard working families will simply show the public what these people are like and if they do manage to disrupt travel plans will simply bring about further change at BA who will need to deal with the fallout of lost revenue and future bookings.

Crew need to open their eyes, the BA board and the city have clearlyt given their consent to the problem being tackled as it is. A strike is not goiung to change anything.

As for the disrupting the Royal Wedding……oh please get a life. In any event they are going to Church by car and back in a gold coach. BA is not involved!!!!!

[Hippocampus]

rgale77, Yes VCC have had further training on hot food so the F&B offering should be improved.

Looking through the shopping list of grievances prepared by Unite, the irony is tragic. For each grievance, you can point to one of the failure to negotiate in the first place, the calling of strikes, or the failure to subsequently reach a settlement.

BA has made it absolutely clear that it is not going to capitulate to unreasonable union demands and behaviour. Nor is BA going to allow the dispute to interfere with the running and development of the business. Meanwhile CC union membership continues to fall.

If the BASSA hardcore want to carry on this fight and be left behind, then that’s their choice. But BA has been very restrained and patient so far but with the oil price hitting $119 a barrel this morning, BA’s patience may soon have to run out. And frankly, the shopping list of grievances could be the least of crew concerns if the oil price carries on its upward trajectory.

[theworldtraveller]

so what happened to the Unions comments in January that Easter would not be a strike time :-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/20/british-airways-crew-easter-strike

this dispute is ridiculous now – BASSA will probably get a vote next month in favour of action. BA WILL then be finally able to sort the militant few out and get BA back to being a consistently good airline (maybe not the best but they are good stlll)

I am still booking with BA as they will run 100% of longhaul services

You read in the papers about BASSA members being lots of single mums not out to cause trouble – bit confused as my flight yesterday had 5 guys as cabin crew (and only 1 lady on the flight out of heathrow!)

[pixelmeister]

Seems like Unite lost just short of 400 members between last ballot in December and the proposed one in a few days time. Unite say they will ballot 9824 members, down from 10,220.

Even then the whole shebang is looking rocky. The accompanying letter lists 10 items that the union feel aggrieved by. These include the use of volunteers, introduction of Mixed Fleet, yada yada yada. Oh and they have linked it to the previous dispute with the return of staff travel, etc. Now I thought that one of the issues that was around from the previous ballot was the fact that it was a scattergun approach with so many issues that it was non-specific. Well, they seem to have fallen into the same bear pit again. Wonder how long it will take for BA to bounce this one into touch . I wouldn’t put any money on Unite being able to hold a strike for a while.

[Don_Draper]

I too am continuing to book with BA. I support their stance in this matter 100% and sincerely hope that they manage to bring down and discredit the militant BASSA bullies. There really is no place in this country for such people. They have had their 15 minutes of fame and even the most obtuse of them should realise that the game is over.

I find it incomprehensible that any right minded person would want to remain in a union which is serving them so badly. That the union is incapable of organising a ballot correctly speaks volumes.

The latest ballot anouncement has met with only minor media coverage and demonstrates the complete disinterest of the general public in this long running farce.

To target Easter demonstates quite clearly how caring these people are so why should we have any sympathy for them? I sincerely hope that in the ballot the cabin crew show their distaste for the bullies within their own union who are leading them so badly. Against the backdrop of the cuts that many people are having to cope with they should also reflect on how much public support they will get.

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