BAreadies itself for strikes this Christmas
FEARS of a bleak?Christmas for British Airways (BA) were growing last night, after the Unite union said it would ballot its 14,000 cabin crew on strike action.
Unions and BA management have been at loggerheads over cost-cutting at the airline, which is struggling to weather the financial storm. Nine months of talks fell apart yesterday when the union called for industrial action.
BA has said it wants to axe 1,700 jobs, and freeze pay for staff, as it braces itself to report its second major financial loss in a row next month.
But a strike ballot, which will not happen for at least four weeks, could see operations at the airline ground to a halt in December, causing further financial strife.
BA said it was “extremely disappointed” by Unite’s decision. But the union said industrial action was the only option.
“Management’s determination to impose unacceptable contractual changes on cabin crew leaves us no alternative,” Unite boss Derek Simpson said.
“Negotiation, not imposition, is the only proper way to conduct industrial relations,” he added.
BA defended its moves to reduce working hours and cap pay, saying its cabin crew was the best paid in the country.
The airline has said big changes are necessary for it to survive the current downturn, which has left the aviation sector on its knees.
BA’s chief executive Willie Walsh is currently in Las Vegas, after flying there over the weekend on BA’s inaugural direct flight to the US gambling capital.
Workers will discuss the plans for strike action at an emergency meeting at Sandown Racecourse in Surrey next Monday.