Latest from the mad house:
BA - A COMPANY IN CRISIS!
Sep 16th, 2009 by admin
BA’s announcement on VR earlier this week, which left hundreds of cabin crew in limbo while simultaneously exposing frightening inadequacies in their “one step forward, two step back” management and “back of a fag packet” planning, is a shocking indication of just how much this once proud airline of ours is in turmoil.
We now have a moribund company caught frozen between the tail lights of a rapidly disappearing recession and the morally bankrupt headlights that have got stuck on full beam.
Make no mistake it is not BA that is in financial crisis but a discredited management that knows not which way to turn. Of course the blame must lie at the top. It was Willie Walsh who started the whole ball rolling using the same template he wielded while decimating Aer Lingus. He does not care one fig about BA’s future, he knows he will not be part of it, instead he lives for today and every decision is about cutting costs now and to hell what the company will look like in 5 years time. Well, he might not care where BA will be in 5 years but we do.
All respected analysts say that for blue chip companies such as British Airways to survive during recessions, they must continue to invest in their brand (especially if it involves customer service) because it is that, which will get them through the hard times. BA, under the governance of Walsh, have done the complete opposite because they have attacked the very core of what made them global aviation leaders in the first place. Front line ground staff and cabin crew have been the target of a full-on assault and is it little wonder morale has hit rock bottom and many are now saying they would sooner see the company go under than be forced to accept the draconian proposed new terms and conditions. What sort of company is it that ignores common sense and behaves in such a manner that alienates its front line customer service staff in such a fashion?
Even in (what we then thought were) the bad old days of Lord King, Sir Colin Marshall, Robert Ayling, Martyn Bridger, Joy Hordern etc etc we all had some sort of grudging respect for our leadership, believing they had the best interests of BA at heart, but today the chilling truth is no one has any faith in the powers that be. Self-interest and self-preservation are the only gods they have.
Just look at the two men Walsh employed to front up his industrial relations less than 12 months ago. Tony McCarthy and James Ferran were plucked from the evolving and continuing disaster that is the Royal Mail (bet their CVs make no mention of that mess they helped create there) and given the task of dismantling an organisation that once, with some justification, laid claim to be the world’s favourite airline. Before they sharpened their axes did either man stop and wonder, what actually made BA the “world’s favourite airline”?
Neither man has a clue about the airline industry and less so the culture - as far as we know neither has set foot on a BA a/c in the last 12 months - indeed it has sometimes been frightening to listen to them attempt to negotiate on something they are utterly clueless about. Ferran wouldn’t know what MBT or 6 and 3 was if they fell on his head, while McCarthy is far better suited to subterfuge and dirty tricks - two tactics he honed and perfected at his previous work place. In short - and as a consequence - these whole negotiations have been one long farce. If you doubt us just ask ACAS.
Bill Francis, a man with a vague and distant background in cabin services, was also drafted in to front up IFCE but in reality he was just McCarthy and Ferran’s stooge. Approachable and presentable he has not been given any real power of his own. Many times BASSA offered to meet him on a one to one basis to see if we could find common ground but he never had the confidence to accept. Hands tied, increasingly he has become a puppet like figure leading a demoralised and uninformed IFCE management team whose morale is only a fraction higher than those they purport to manage. It is little wonder then that we are where we are this autumn. IFCE is in complete disarray. Those who want to leave, can’t (despite lots of encouragement) and those who want to stay have no idea what the future holds. On board, cabin service routines are now being reduced to pathetic levels, catering is in decline, the aircraft are falling apart, there is no back up or credible management structure to sort out the mess and wherever you are in the world no one cares about BA anymore. We are a skeleton airline, running on a shoestring budget, governed by a second string management.
We simply cannot go on like this, the passengers are not mugs - they will not be fooled by glib advertising and empty words. They know that cabin crew (who more often than not are the reason they choose to fly BA) are being undermined and being deprived of the essential tools that help make their journeys that much more pleasurable. They don’t want a Ryan Air type experience when they clamber on a British Airways jet but if Walsh, McCarthy and Ferran have their way that is precisely what they will get and there will not be any going back.
Over the last 12 months BASSA have shown that we are prepared to make sacrifices and contribute to help BA combat the global downturn but all our offers have been thrown back in our faces because it did not quite match the sums envisaged by the greedy mandarins at the top - who not only saw their chance to “save a few bob” but who were intent on finally dismantling union power too.
The true depth of BA’s skulduggery is yet to emerge but, in the meantime, BASSA would like to send a message to the Board. Please come to your senses - this airline is now in a terminal decline and unless someone quickly oversees a change in philosophy there will be no respite. The vast majority of your customer service staff still care deeply and passionately about the people they serve, tap into that passion - reward them, give them back their tools of the trade, embrace their enthusiasm, restore their belief and respect and above all treat them like human beings. You might be pleasantly surprised just how quickly this airline returns to its glory days. But you have got to act fast - the sands of time are fast running out.
Please note: This message should not be copied, circulated or published without express prior agreement with BASSA.
My bold in there. I'd personally like to thank all our cabin crew and ground staff for being the only reason anyone flies with BA. I'd also like to thank BASSA for not wasting time finding solutions to the problems facing the business but instead concentrating on the important business of levelling schoolyard insults at the people running BA.
Maybe it's just me but with their increasingly desperate missives it sounds to me like BASSA are the ones running out of ideas, not BAs managers.