Spine on the part of British Airways staff

[Die Neue Zeit]

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/ba-staff-back-12-days-of-christmas-strikes-skynews-52a6bc9bda2f.html?x=0




British Airways cabin crews have voted nine to one in favour of holding 12 days of strikes over the Christmas period.

Thousands of Unite members voted in favour of the planned days of action between December 22nd and January 2nd.

The 92.5% vote in favour follows a long-running row over changes to working practices, including the pay freeze and job cuts.

The strikes will happen during one of the busiest weeks of the year for British Airways, causing festive travel misery for thousands of passengers.

The threat of action grew after BA's chief executive Willie Walsh and leaders of Unite failed to reach an agreement at last-ditch talks on Friday.

[Pogue]

British Airways cabin crew vote for Christmas strike



Len McCluskey on the reasons behind the strike action

British Airways cabin crew have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in a dispute over job cuts and changes to staff contracts. 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."
He stressed that the union was keen to continue negotiations.
"We will wait, ready to meet, anytime, anywhere, 24 hours a day, to try to see if we can resolve the dispute."
Contacting passengers

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gifhttp://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/start_quote_rb.gif Customers who are booked to travel between 22 December and 2 January, and 48 hours either side of those dates... can change to another BA flight departing in the next 12 months at no charge http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/end_quote_rb.gif


BA statement

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/inline_dashed_line.gif

Q&A: BA strikes and you (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8411494.stm)
Your Christmas holiday fears (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8412799.stm)
Send us your comments (http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=7343&edition=1)

BA's chief executive Willie Walsh said the company would be doing everything it could to limit the effect of the strike action.
"We are going to look at all our options [to minimise disruption]; operational, legal and industrial relations options," he told BBC News.
BA offered passengers who are booked to travel during the strike period - or 48 hours either side of it - the chance to rebook their flights at no extra cost.
Otherwise it said it would inform customers of changes to its schedules by email or SMS text.
"We will use the contact details supplied at the time of booking, so we ask customers to please ensure these are correct and up-to-date," BA said in a statement.
Mr Walsh said he had told the Unite union he was available for talks, but was uncompromising on the central issue of the dispute.
"The changes that we introduced in the middle of November will not be reversed. Those changes enabled us to offer voluntary redundancy to 1,000 cabin crew and those people have left the business."
Cuts concerns

BA's Chief Executive Willie Walsh: "It's a cynical exercise"

Unions are unhappy about job cuts and changes to staff contracts, which they say they have not been consulted on.
BA has reduced the number of cabin crew from 15 to 14 on all long-haul flights, and has frozen pay for two years.
Unite said that the cuts involved imposing "significant contractual changes" on cabin crew employees, resulting in extended working hours, and reduced wages for new starters.
BA says it urgently needs to cut costs to ride out its dire financial situation. Last month it revealed it had lost £292m in the first half of the year - the worst period in its history - and said it would have to cut a further 1,200 staff.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8411214.stm

Maybe change the title to make it a bit clearer about whats actually going on here?

[Absolut]

Nice, have a flight booked for London on the 30th with British Airways. Nonetheless, good on them, they got my full support.

[cska]

lol they need to do their math. It is over 12 to 1...

[Bitter Ashes]

I've been following the issues with BA since the early parts of this year. There's at least two threads about numerous disputes that Willie Walsh has brought upon himself and the union have let slide, such as making promises not to cut staff or pay, staff bieng told to work for free and many others. Unite did not call for a ballot at any of these points to find out what the rank and file thought to all this.

What I wasn't aware of was that Gatwick airport's staff had already been put through these new cuts and conditions, although Unite had not only not responded to thier members' plights, but actualy agreed upon these very same terms! Why Unite really called the ballot was not because thier members were suffering (otherwise they would have done it for the Gatwick staff too!), but because the same terms had been pushed through without getting a magic tickbox from the union leaders. I was watching channel 4 news last night and the deputy secertary of Unite basicly said that he would have agreed to these new terms for Heathrow staff, if they'd been consulted, but will call for a ballot if they were not consulted.

I'm actualy really quite annoyed now. Who the fuck do Unite think they are? They're supposed to be fighting for thier members' welfare, not for thier egos. The terms were wrong in Heathrow and they were wrong at Gatwick. Just because one had the union leaders' approval and the other didnt, doesnt change that.

Is it any wonder that people are becoming disillusioned with unions when the biggest one is pulling stunts like this? I'll be watching it closely and I won't be suprised if they pull the carpet from under the feet of the staff too and end the strike before anything meaningful has been agreed.

This is exactly why the rank and file deserve total control over thier union. So that they can call for action when things bother them, not when it ruffles the feathers of the big wigs at the top.