BA is not scared! Why should they be scared? Speaking from experience, which they probably are, and looking at the last strike almost two years ago. Wait, I forgot! It never took place, did it? 98% of the members voted in favour of one but it was not carried out! Such a sense of devotion to BASSA would you say?
To those of you considering to hang around the picket line, here are a few tips and generous as I am, I will be giving them to you for free:
1. Get a good night sleep (I understand you will be nervous but please try...) because you've got a long fight ahead of you.
2. Curtain up with warm clothes because it's going to be a very cold and long day. Why is day written in singular you may be asking. Because I doubt you will get your backside the day after when you realise it won't do any good.
3. Make a really nice and creamy soup and shove it down a thermos to enjoy in the snowy weather.
4. Bring with your own blanket for "crew rest" which you probably will be craving for because you couldn't possibly stand there for eight hours without one. BA ain't giving you a blanket!
5. Don't forget before heading off to the picket line to decide, after seniority of course, which ones will be on 1st and 2nd breaks.
6. Enjoy the view of the BA aircraft leaving crewed with crew from both LGW and LHR who have a bit of sense behind their forehead and not supporting a strike but sensible and mature negotations.
7. To the commuting crew standing at the line, think about how expensive it will for you having to buy full fare tickets for a year to get to and from work. When you get home in the evening, log onto Gumtree and see if you can find a pad in London to stay in for a year to get to and from your job. Well, if you've got one after the strike is over that is.
8. Think about the opening hours for the JobCentre Plus because you, or any of your colleagues, might have to go there to get a new job. Wish yourself or your colleagues good luck because in this climate it won't be easy to find a new one. Having to explain why you lost your job at BA won't do any good either.
9. Take a calculator with you and do a bit of math to see how much penalty for IFCE will be. £140 million plus the cost of the strike? Not a very nice figure, is it?
10. How many other crew are on strike? Are we the only ones? You definitely will be asking yourself that! Not knowing is terrible.
11. After a bit of shivering outside, think about how all of this could have been avoided if your devoted BASSA had acted responsibly and not rushed out of the room or refused to turn up on set dates or denying the fact that there is an ongoing worldwide recession and financial crisis.
These tips are valuable to you and feel free to pass them around without my permission.
Whom to blame? Miss Malone and her brigade of course. If she drags her backside to the picket line, demand her to explain honestly why it has gone as far as this. Tell her not to answer with the usual BASSA crap which has been floating about far too long.
Good luck!
(If it goes to a strike that is...)