The truth?
Flyer doing the rounds at Compass....
And the winner at British Airways is....
Willie Walsh
“Make no mistake; Willie Walsh is the big winner in the settlement of the British Airways cabin-crew strike.
Not only is the cost of the settlement to BA a minor one, but the BASSA arm of the T&G union representing the cabin crew has been publicly humiliated and is in internal disarray, and Willie himself did not put a foot wrong in the whole affair.
The game was up from the moment on BBC primetime radio news that T&G deputy general secretary Jack Dromey failed to respond to Walsh's declaration that average sickness absence among cabin crew was 22 days a year. Not news to anyone in the industry, but big news to the rest of the world. Dromey repeatedly refused to address the point. Shortly after, his boss Tony Woodley took over the negotiations and he and Walsh quietly thrashed out the new deal over a period of days. I guess labour deals aren't negotiated in the proverbial 'smoke-filled rooms' anymore, but it was that sort of old-fashioned session that cracked it.”*
The issue of the sickness policy was one that was held up as one of the key points of the T&G; the results that are being trumpeted by BASSA are nothing less than a cave-in. The T&G wanted a 12 month reference period when considering discounting, BA was holding out for 24 months; the result? Not the half-way point of 18 months which could have been attained had the union not given up; they stopped negotiating at 21 months.
The pay deal that has been ‘negotiated’ by the T&G is a slap in the face for their members; why are crew being made to pay for 4 years worth of increments in a 2-year pay deal? No one will benefit from last 2 increments yet the money will have been given up by the crew. Why is cross-subsidy (something that the T&G in the form of BASSA have always be vehemently opposed to) being used to ‘top-up’ the post ’97 pay-scales? Also by moving the pay anniversary from October to February everyone is suffering a 4-month pay freeze; does this sound like an agreement made by individuals worthy of our trust?
In the heat of the moment did anyone in the T&G realise that they had given away the Purser position on the upper deck of the 747? This was one of the items that the T&G in the form of BASSA said that they would not give up. Once again, after the behaviour of the reps caused them to be sidelined, this was another huge concession made to British Airways at the expense of the crew by their outside union officials.
Although the majority of the losses occurred on Worldwide fleet, BASSA have made sure that Eurofleet have taken their share of the pain. Even though BASSA have been opposed to fixed-links in the past (partly as there is no guarantee that meal breaks could be achieved and it would mean a large increase in crew utilisation), they have now agreed to trial the concept despite the last trials illustrating that meal breaks were not being attained with no new ideas to change things.
For those of you who joined British Airways as cabin crew and thought that would mean ‘flying’ think again… As part of the cave-in the T&G has agreed to ‘reexamine’ the CSD-X (i.e. Fleet Director) concept, the agreement has been couched in such language that it looks like a dead-cert.
The ‘catch-all’ approach of the ballot illustrated the desperation that BASSA felt in trying to secure our support for a personal vendetta by 2 of their reps (who subsequently resigned their posts as Convenor and Deputy Convenor when the strike failed to materialise). BASSA themselves admitted surprise at the high voter turnout and overwhelming ‘yes’ vote that they secured. This is all very well, it is the method by which the yes vote was come by that is the issue; a number of the issues that had either never been properly talked about (900 hours, preferred seller, LGW breakfast) or were still in the process of being discussed (notably NAPS) should never have been included; they were merely in there to assist the BASSA propaganda with whipping the crew up into a frenzy to vote in favour of industrial action.
“Nobody should be surprised. The characterisation of 'slasher' Walsh as the scourge of unions is simply stupid. It comes from his Aer Lingus days and ignores the context of what was happening at that company - which was nothing less than its complete reinvention from a stone-age, state-owned, flag-carrier into a reasonably modern business with a fighting chance of long-term survival. Employment reduction was just one piece of the jigsaw.”*
*Source: Kieran Daly - Flight International (30/01/07)