BA are obviously going to roster striking crews to come in during the next strike. They either do not come in and continue to be unpaid and BA has lost nothing, or they begin to change their minds and come back to work. BA has nothing to lose and everything to gain by rostering current strikers to come to work during the next strike period.
My personal thoughts on the strike so far. BA are totally 100% in control of the situation. There is obviously loss of revenue, but nothing that is above what BA was expecting and therefore it was all very well pre-planned. BA did not back down at the 11th hour because they know that this extent of pain is acceptable and they know what their contingency plans are. Unite can only guess and have no contingency other than to continue with the rhetoric. The cabin crew have no contingency other than to use their credit cards... No wonder the Chairman is saying that Willie is doing a great job - it is all proceeding like clockwork.
Unite claim that this strike is damaging BA and so is not in its interest. BA have done the figures, they know what is in their interest and what is not. Of course the strike is damaging revenue at present, but long term this will be recovered from either the striking crew or perhaps Unite themselves?
Overall I am dead certain that this dispute is still in fact absolutely in BA's long term interest. The flip side of the coin is that it is most definitely not in the long term, short term, or any kind of term for that matter, interests of the striking cabin crew.
One day you will all come to realise this. The only thing I am unsure of, is how long it will take for the penny to drop, and how much money you yourselves will have lost in the meantime.
Last edited by GS-Alpha; 22nd Mar 2010 at 20:50.