Hot off the press -latest BASSA newsflash.
I suspect this will form the basis of their 'heartfelt plea' newspaper ad they are planning. Might have been corrupted a little in the cut and paste from the BASSA website.
BASSA Statement
Oct 27th, 2009 by admin
A MESSAGE TO ALL BA PASSENGERS!
Why are British Airways cabin crew balloting for industrial action?
BA say none of their crew will be financially worse off with the impositions of taking a crew member off the aircraft on November 16th and it will just mean everyone will have to work that little bit harder. While on the surface what BA are saying is not untrue it is the unspoken underlying plans that do much to threaten BA cabin crews’ futures and in turn, as importantly the welfare of you, the passengers on the aircraft.
Willie Walsh wants to do to BA what he did at Aer Lingus, which is to respond to a sea change in market economics and ensure the survival of the company. With respect to Aer Lingus BA is nowhere near Aer Lingus’s position prior to Mr Walsh’s involvement. BA made a profit year in year out and has only undergone a blip the last year due to the recession, a blip which shows no signs of abating. Unfortunately Mr Walsh has seen this as his chance to turn BA into a business which can compete survive in the era of Ryan Air. The recent Panorama programme exposed how Michael O’Leary works and how he treats his employees who don’t belong to trade unions and how his passengers are inconvenienced when things go wrong. Mr Walsh would like to be in Michael O’Leary’s shoes, leading a financially strong company with sizeable financial reserves, but that means reducing the disruptive influence of overly powerful Unions and the best place to start is with BASSA - the main cabin crew union. Once that has been achieved (and the imposition of one or two off an aircraft is just a start) the rest will follow as sure as night follows day. There is already talk of introducing a “new fleet” with crew on market competitive terms and conditions and once this “Trojan horse” has been wheeled into position the career prospects of BA’s 15000 cabin crew community will be under severe threat. THAT IS WHY WE HAVE TO TAKE ACTION NOW! Mr Walsh is not a man to reason with. He once said “a reasonable man gets nowhere with negotiation”. Perhaps you can begin to see what we are up against?
What sort of people are BA cabin crew?
Well one thing they are definitely is political “militants”. They are mums and dads, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters with parents, children, boyfriends and girlfriends to care for and to look after, and they will not budge from their industrial agreements, even if it means you don’t get to see your mums and dads, brothers and sisters, children, boyfriends and girlfriends that you have to care for and look after. That’s not our problem. They come in every shape, size and colour, they come from various different religious, cultural and political backgrounds and they are aged between 20 and 65. Diverse for sure, but they have one thing in common - they are there in a BA uniform because nowhere else can they earn so much, for doing so little in an unskilled job. Sounds corny we know but it is true. If your Mum or Dad or daughter or son suddenly became seriously ill on an aircraft would you just want any old body tackling the emergency, would you want someone who has experience, knowhow and compassion, or would you want a tired, grumpy crewmember who long since forgotten the correct way to do things?
BA has not become the proud airline it has on the back of that compassion. The care that comforts the bewildered or frightened, the care that nurses anything from minor headaches to full-blown heart attacks. The care to the old and very young travelling alone. BA cabin crew take great pride in their reputation, which has not developed overnight. It has taken years of walkouts, militancy and obstinacy to achieve. It has grown since the far off days of B.O.A.C and B.E.A when those airlines sold themselves on the back of employing the best cabin crew in the world – and their global reach and monopoly on many routes. Those crew have not changed (indeed some of our older members were around in those days) but the world has. Care and compassion don’t count for much in their cost driven business world. Nowadays they want as many backsides on seats and offer them just enough to get by - with meal quality dwindling and poorly maintained aircraft cabins, but above all, a ticket so cheap you can fly to Australia at a lower cost per mile than you’d pay for a journey in a London taxi. Ground staff throughout the world have been laid off; everything has been cut back in the name of economic survival and technological progress. The very core brand value that used to make BA the “World’s Favourite Airline” is no longer regarded as of paramount importance. The passengers are now given as much as the lean margins on their tickets afford and crew are becoming increasingly frustrated at the decline in standards.
Contrary to popular belief the salary for new cabin crew is very low - just little more than £11,500pa to top up the £1000 per month in meal allowances and overtime payments. In 1997 BA imposed a new tier of payment, which means over three quarters of the cabin crew on the aircraft really struggle to make ends meet if they do not fly a single days work in a month. After 5 years a crew member could expect to be on aprox £14,000 plus allowances and overtime, while after 10 years service a cabin crew member is on less than £20,000 basic for a job that requires barely 5 GCSEs . The job is no longer about 5 star hotels and tanning by the pool - those days are virtually gone. We are now expected to work for a living. Aviation has moved on with longer more frequent flights and cabin crew now work at a frenetic pace often with barely three hours break on board the aircraft or 2 hours for lunch at Heathrow. As you will know from being a passenger the state of world wide security issues has made flying around a lot more worrying and stressful which is something crew have to deal with on a 24/7 basis, whenever away from base. But, we are not complaining - the job, despite the stresses that calling in sick to avoid Christmases away from home and the anniversaries and birthdays we’d miss brings, an enriching one, indeed some might say highly enriching, and one that brings us into contact with people, with people like you, for just as long as we have to remain on the aircraft. People that we want to explain why we might have to do what we have to do to bring BA to its knees.
We have no cares about your travel plans. We do not care if we cause distress at airports, especially as the holiday season approaches, but our unions intentions leave us with little alternative. We have tried talking, briefly, but we didn’t like it. We have offered to make insignificant savings but they are not interested. They are hell bent on removing the one obstacle that stands between them doing what is necessary to ensure the survival of the business. We seek your understanding of our predicament.
We are slightly sorry that the general public could be caught up in this whole sad episode. We honestly believe that only the threat of industrial action will deflect BA away from their vision that will leave this country with an airline it can feel secure in and proud of. There may be pain but if BASSA can be persuaded to alter its catastrophic path not only will cabin crew have protected their jobs and futures but the passenger experience will once again return to enjoyable levels and this country will have an airline it can be proud of. We speak from our wallets.