Especially when crew are saying that BA's products are lacking in comparison with other airlines. Perhaps they should ask themselves why. Because everything has to go through BASSA and they keep saying no.
This is probably how it all goes.
BA: We want to introduce hot towels in World Traveller Plus.
BASSA: No, not gonna happen unless you put on another crew member. It's bad enough as it is.
BA: Would it be okay to remove one crew member on the domestic routes?
BASSA: Of course. If one crew member goes, the service goes as well. You can't expect them to do both sandwiches AND drinks.
BA: Would you agree in cutting down the crew levels on longhaul?
BASSA: Service will suffer. No brekkie! Our members aren't working under those conditions. It's inhuman.
BA: Fixed links might be a good idea. Would you agree to cutting down the turnaround time at the CRC?
BASSA: Are you mad?
BA: No.
BASSA: In that case we want a good turnaround allowance and each sector can't be longer than 45 minutes. Come to think of it. No.
BA: The CSD role would need to change and become part of the service.
BASSA: They are part of the service. They do boarding, hand out landing cards and hourly cabin checks. What else? You mean tea and coffee? No, they can't do that. We say no.
BA: We would like to discuss the disruption agreement and having two local nights.
BASSA: There's nothing to discuss. It's stressful enough having to do a disruption.
BA: Would you agree to one local night?
BASSA: One night only? Isn't that inhuman? Think about the affects involved in flying. They will get tired with only one local night after a diversion. No, no, no.
BA: Allowances are a bit high. We would really need to take them down a bit.
BASSA: Again, are you mad? Look, our members have mortages to pay, children to feed and bread to bake. Think about our part-timers struggling on a part-time salary.
BA: We haven't really reached anything.
BASSA: No and if you try anything like this again we'll ballot for a strike, understood? We, the union and our members, don't enjoy being bullied around like this.