Crew reject BA pay offer
BRITISH Airways is facing the prospect of further strikes after cabin crew staff yesterday rejected a new pay offer made by the airline.
Just under half of the 11,000 registered members of Unite, the union representing the crew, voted on the pay package with 3,419 standing against the offer, while 1,686 favoured it.
BA called the vote “encouraging” and said the ballot demonstrated that “73 per cent of crew did not reject the offer”.
“With only around a quarter of our cabin crew voting against the deal, support for Unite is ebbing away. The union has lost the moral authority to represent the views of our cabin crew,” said the airline in a statement.
But Unite argued that cabin crew had given BA management the thumbs down in the ballot and called on the airline to return to the negotiating table.
Unite joint general secretary, Tony Woodley, said: “Willie Walsh’s attempt to browbeat his employees into accepting his deal has failed miserably.”
Meanwhile, BA last night received approval from the Department of Transport to go ahead with its three-way partnership with American Airlines and Iberia.