BA Cabin Crew Strike
BA facing new strike threat from cabin crew
Graham Dunn, London (15Dec06, 15:32 GMT, 491 words)
British Airways (BA) chief executive Willie Walsh is calling for a meeting with the general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G), after cabin crew union BASSA, which is part of the T&G, announced plans to ballot its members on industrial action.
The T&G represents 11,000 cabin crew at the Oneworld carrier and says BA management has become “increasingly inclined to impose new practices rather than negotiate”.
Contentious issues include management of sickness absence which, the union says, puts cabin crew under pressure to turn up for work even when unwell, and the imposed abolition of some higher grades and lower rates for new starters.
Balloting begins on 21 December and should be completed on 12 January. Any industrial action would then have to wait for at least another week.
T&G regional secretary Steve Hart says: "Cabin crew have seen their terms and conditions attacked and imposition from management rather than negotiation. They justifiably feel aggrieved and do not take this decision lightly. It is a serious breakdown of industrial relations.
“We remain convinced that a negotiated solution is possible but I urge BA management to act to resolve this dispute at the earliest possible opportunity.”
Following BASSA’s move to break off talks with the airline, Walsh is now calling for a meeting with T&G general secretary Tony Woodley to discuss the issues raised by unions. “We're disappointed that BASSA has raised the prospect of industrial action in January but we're seeking to avert a dispute with the help of the T&G,” he says.
BA has been talking to two cabin crew unions – BASSA (T&G) and Amicus – on changes to work practices aimed at contributing to its goal of cutting £450 million ($885 million) in costs by March 2008.
“BASSA has remained opposed to key elements of our business plan. Indeed, many of the requests put forward by BASSA would prevent any change to working arrangements and add millions of pounds to our employee costs,” says Walsh. “This cannot be the way forward at a time when other parts of our business have negotiated and balloted to accept new competitive ways of working.”
The issue is unrelated to BA’s continuing discussions with unions aimed at hammering out an agreement with unions on proposals to tackle the carrier’s £2 billion pension deficit; both sides report progress from their latest meeting on this.
BA last month agreed with trustees to raise the size of its one-off contribution to help tackle the deficit, but it is conditional on securing union support for changes to the scheme.
Unions tabled a counter-proposal to BA during a meeting yesterday, which both sides say resulted in constructive discussions.
“The trade union side financial advisers will meet with their BA counterparts over the coming days to clarify assumptions,” the unions say in a joint statement. “This will be followed by a joint meeting aimed at developing a proposal that would be put to members for their consideration.”
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news