Todays Daily Mail has an article on the BA Pilots deal:
"British Airways' 3,000 pilots are being asked by their union to take an average £200-a-week pay cut to help save the cash-strapped airline.
The British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) recommends that the pilots agree to a ten per cent cut in pay and accept 100 voluntary redundancies. Letters urging them to accept the proposal will be sent out on Tuesday and Balpa is confident that its proposals will be endorsed in a ballot, following weeks of talks between BA and Balpa aimed at limiting job cuts.
BA pilots earn £25,000 to £150,000 a year with the average salary being about £100,000. Negotiations with the other unions representing ground staff, baggage handlers and cabin crew are continuing.
BA chief executive Willie Walsh has given management and unions until the end of the month to come up with significant savings. The company said talks were going well, but unions have said they will not accept compulsory redundancies - and BA has refused to rule these out.
One of the main targets of the company's cost-cutting is the bloated allowances received by 14,000 cabin crew, which in certain cases gives staff an extra £1,000 for each long-haul trip.
The company wants to cut its 40,600 workforce by a further 3,000. About 2,500 staff have already left since last summer, with others being urged to take unpaid leave or work part time. Walsh, who is not being paid in July, has described BA as being in a 'fight for survival' after it posted record annual losses of £401million in May."