Originally Posted by
HZ123
Kcockayne; I feel that the picture you relate of the staff is optimistic and I make that remark having recently completed 3 decades as a BA staff member. Management in my opinion has tended to be weak for far to long and to this end staff side have in the main been inflexible all to often. Regrettably, BA management have used the current situation as a stick to beat the staff with and simplify future contracts. Presently, there are literally thousands of differing contracts and staff side has always refused to address this problem. Your suggestions of reduced working, part time, unpaid leave etc sadly do not solve the problem which is to many staff. I would anticipate that Check-in and Ramp will be outsourced plus areas of the operation in an effort to retain more of the flying community. Either way it is a sad situation for the staff and the aviation industry but so many other areas of employment will suffer also.
Optimistic ? Maybe, But, this is not a normal downturn or airline running into cash problems. This is existential. This could make ALL the staff & the airline redundant. In these circumstances, it is realistic to feel that the staff will realise the extent of the airline's, & therefore their, problems. Everyone needs to make sacrifices & to pull together. I think that the staff realise this & acknowledge the extremely deep nature of their problems. They, of course, are not alone. Pretty much everyone in Europe is under the threat of a prolonged loss of work & income. What is needed is to keep the maximum number of staff in employment, even if that means severely reduced salaries. What is not needed is responses from Management such as BA's. A little bit of compassion & consideration is demanded from them - NOT a full scale blitzkrieg on people who are potentially down & out !