Here's a press release
British Airways Pilots Vote On Strike
Updated:16:35, Monday January 21, 2008
British Airways pilots are to be balloted for strikes in a dispute about the airline's plans to launch a subsidiary business.
If the pilots do strike, it will be the first time they have taken action since 1980.
Pilots could strikeThe British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) says all of BA's 3,200 pilots will vote on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action.
The dispute flared over the airline's announcement of a new subsidiary, OpenSkies, due to start in June and offering luxury seat flights from continental Europe to America.
The union wants there to be "open access" to jobs between the airline and the new unit.
Balpa had been due to announced the ballot last Thursday but delayed the news following the crash-landing of a BA aircraft at Heathrow airport.
The union said the row was not about safety and stressed it had nothing to do with last week's incident at Heathrow.
General secretary Jim McAuslan said: "We hope the BA leadership will think again. This is not about money and it is not about safety. We have been prepared to accept that a service will need lower costs to build business and that Balpa would be able to crew the service to meet the BA business case.
"But we are not prepared to see the pilot body broken up in the way BA plans and are bemused as to why they will not use BA pilots."
OpenSkies is due to start with one Boeing 757 aircraft operating from New York to Brussels or Paris, with a second 757 added later in the year.
BA plans to have six 757s in operation by the end of 2009