Not that I place much emphasis on self congratulatory wards, (conde nast awarded BA best business cabin, despite the fact that it doesn't work and rarely has the product promised to passengers, no washbags, no first or even second meals choice, only half the stated wines available..... i could go on) but, are you suprised that BA cabin crew are not no1. We've had a two years of demotivation from the company and todays events are no better. We are fed up, we want an agreement which suites both sides and we want the matter settled soon. I once enjoyed going to work, but the shine has been removed. It seems that everytime I set foot into the CRC there is another BA induced drama.
Look, I'm affected by the talks but I'm not involved. My message to BA would be to make the first move to compromise. Instead we have a senior director behaving like a spoilt child and storming out of meeting, in front of ACAS, because the unions do not wish to view his slides before talks commence. Here is how I see it. If the company really want this matter resolved now then McCarthy should have let out a small sigh and commenced talks but refered to his slides throughout to illustrate his points. As I see it the scenario was utter pathetic. This site is ultra quick to call the unions immature, and I agree at times their public behaviour has left something to be desired, but BA are no better. It leads me to believe that there is a great deal of truth in the argument that BA's actions against it's cabin crew are not about saving money in a crisis
per se. It seems that BA are stalling because they know that no matter what they will be imposing 100% what they want, and they know the most likely result will be industrial action. January is a quiet month. How about stalling until the begining of December, imposing their new requirements thus allowing any industrial action to occur in January.
Bassa's proposals may not have been acceptable to BA. To the vast majority of cabin crew BA's proposals are also unacceptable. No compromise will ever be reached whilst the senior partner behaves like the junior. Somebody has to take the lead or we will fly headfirst into a strike, which no matter how much cold analysis states will be cost effective in the long run, will have a detremental effect on BA's reputation. We need to strike a balance here. The vast majority of our passengers care not a jot about the longtime cost effectiveness of BA, only that they do what they say the will for the right price.