What happened to team spirit?
I have watched this thread for a long time wondering whether to make a contibution. I am now approaching 80 years old and have given up flying as a pilot and even as SLF. I have always had great respect for the standard of BA flight crews but now there is too much hassle with the necessary security and overcrowded airports for an old man to cope with.
Before starting my aviation career that lasted 42 years I trained to be a Chartered Accountant. My company was appointed as receivers in the bankrupcy of one of the old Clyde side shipbuilders.I was sent to sort out the financial state of the company. I found that they had lost many shipbuilding orders due to long delays in delivery and high costs. The problem had been that after the 39/45 war shipbuilders in other parts of the world had modernised their methods. One example being the introduction of welding in place of riveting. The British riviters union refused to accept changes and re-training of their members and called for strike action. The result was further delays and increased costs. The union claimed victory when the management gave in to their demands. A victory perhaps for that small battle but a loss of the war when shipping companies preferred to place their orders elsewhere. The result was bankruptcy and the loss of the jobs of all the tradesmen in the company.
What then was really the cause of the disaster. IMHO it was the fact that the management and unions were not working together as a TEAM. Management had failed to enlighten the unions and their members of what was happening outside their immediate yards in other parts of the world. The unions could only think of retaining the Ts&Cs of their members and were incapable of looking at the wider picture and so the inevitable happened.
Where management and unions each regard the other as enemies rather than essential parts of a team there will be little or no hope of a solution that will benefit the futures of all concerned. At one time in my aviation career I was elected as a local union representative. Management put forward a proposal for a small change of working conditions that would benefit the service with no loss of income for us and only a small loss of perks that we really haddn't deserved anyway. I went for the first time to a national union meeting and said that I thought the management proposal should be accepted. I was howled down and told in no uncertain terms that unions should never ever accept a management proposal however good or resonable as the management would see this as weakness. In other words management should always be considered as the enemy. I resigned as union rep and resigned from the union.
I see from this thread that the same old attitudes still persist and I am not trying to take sides here. I am sure that the management are not working as members of a TEAM and neither are BALPA. Both have dug into their entrenched positions and are treating each other as enemies. To find a solution both must start acting as members of a TEAM and look beyond the short term local issues and realise what is going on in the big world outside BA.
The British shipbuilding business that was once the best in the world failed to do just that. Where now are the big ships build? No longer on the Clyde.
I hope I haven't bored you with my personal experiences and wish you a satifactory settlement of this dispute. Despite what you may think of management at BA, they too have a role to play. They are far from perfect but do try to convince them that only by working together as a team and looking at the wider picture you will all have a sound future.
OJJ