BA facing Christmas strike

[MTheory]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/12/14/ba....llot/index.html

The right to strike for fair and decent wages when your employer refuses to negotiate. Must be nice.

 

[FWAAA]

Yes, the right to inflict "catastrophic damage" (union head's words) on the viablility of one's employer is a valuable right:

McCluskey [Deputy General Secretary of Unite] warned that the strike would inflict "catastrophic damage" to the airline if it went ahead and urged British Airways bosses to return to the negotiating table.

Don't make me put you out of business, boss!

I'm rooting for a 12 day shutdown at BA. No doubt it will result in full victory for the BA flight attendants, who only make about double the pay of Virgin Atlantic FAs.

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

BBC story
The strikes are set to begin on 22 December and run until 2 January.

Cabin crew voted by nine to one in favour of the strike action, with an 80% turnout.

BA's chief executive Willie Walsh said the decision was "cynical" and betrayed "a lack of concern for our customers, our business and other employees".

Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of the Unite union, said: "It goes without saying that we have taken this decision to disrupt passengers and customers over the Christmas period with a heavy heart."

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

BA Legal Challenge to Strike

BA believes that ballot papers were sent to staff who had already left or were in the process of leaving the airline's employment, and therefore should not have been balloted.

Marc Meryon, industrial relations partner at the law firm Bircham Dyson Bell, said BA's case rested on whether Unite took enough care in ruling ex-employees out of the ballot.

Virgin Atlantic said passengers were already rebooking their flights - and that they were providing bigger planes where possible in order to accommodate more passengers.

Flights to New York (Newark), Boston, Washington and Delhi will now be operated by the larger Airbus A340-600, which has 68 more seats than the A340-300 normally used.

"We've sold 3000 seats in the past 12 hours: people are already switching," said spokesman Paul Charles.

Airline analyst Andrew Fitchie of Collins Stewart estimated that Easyjet could be in line for extra revenues of £40m to £60m as a result of the dispute.

Ryanair, Flybe, Lufthansa and Air France will also benefit he said.

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

BA meets union for strike talks

British Airways and the Unite union are in talks over planned strike action by cabin crew.

Before the talks, Unite said it was glad that the dispute had moved from "confrontation to negotiation".

Meanwhile BA lawyers are at the High Court in London to arguing that the planned 12-day strike, due to begin on 22 December, is illegal.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh and the airline's director of people Tony McCarthy are attending the talks with Unite.

A British Airways spokesman described the union's demands as "cynical" and "unrealistic", pointing out that the changes implemented at BA had already allowed 1,000 crew members to leave through voluntary redundancy.

BA has highlighted "irregularities" in the strike ballot which it believes makes the outcome of the vote invalid.

The airline claims Unite is in "clear breach" of the 1992 Trade Union and Labour Relations Act.

In his opening statement, Bruce Carr QC, representing BA, said that 1,000 votes from ex-staff had been wrongly included in the strike ballot, calling it a "wholesale and deliberate inclusion".

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

BA strike ruled illegal

A strike by British Airways cabin crew planned for Christmas has been declared illegal in a High Court ruling.

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

Strike is on again!
The union representing British Airways cabin crew has said its members will go on strike for three days from 20 March and for four days from 27 March.

The union confirmed it would not strike over Easter, but warned there could be further action after 14 April if a resolution had not been agreed.

The union said it would also ballot its members on a new offer from BA, but added it could not recommend it.

Gordon Brown calls strike deplorable

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said a planned strike by British Airways (BA) cabin crew would be "unjustified and deplorable".

The comments follow a weekend in which the government stepped up pressure on Unite to return to the negotiating table to avert the planned strikes.

Mr Brown's intervention followed weekend comments by Lord Adonis, transport secretary, who said the strike would "threaten the very existence of British Airways".

Meanwhile, a BA source said that it was "fairly likely" that there would be an announcement Monday afternoon about which flights will be cancelled this weekend.

BA also hopes to be operating at least 23 aircraft with replacement crews made up of other staff.

BA will fly 60% of its flights during a planned strike

 

[Hatu]

British Airways cabin crew members will go ahead with their strikes beginning at midnight Friday after talks between the union and the airline broke down, a union official said Friday.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/19/british-airways-crew-members-will-strike/?hpt=T2

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

BA claims victory
The airline said that 100 per cent of its staff had turned up to work as normal at Gatwick and half had reported for duty at Heathrow. It predicts around two thirds of its passengers will take up their scheduled flights during the three-day strike.

BA strike cost 21 million
British Airways has estimated the three-day strike by its cabin crew will cost £7m a day - £21m in total.
According to BA's website, 238 of the 691 flights due to take off or land at 11 major UK airports before 1600 GMT were cancelled.