Just to explain the mindset of these people, here is a missive the day before imposition, published on the uniteba website. I don't recall seeing it on the thread.
15/11/09
A Response to Bill's Begging Letter
One more time….
Another communication from Mr. Francis, its amazing how we are in such different places. The opening paragraph states we are balloting about “measures being introduced…” NO Mr Francis we are balloting because you are IMPOSING the measures!
We have kept you all fully informed of the developments as they have occurred and tried to make sense of them for you when common sense has not been commonplace on the part of BA.
We know you will seriously consider the impact of your vote and the clear fact that you don’t have a choice if you will not tolerate IMPOSITION. You have to vote YES if you want to say NO to IMPOSITION and a tyrannical management that is driving our company into the ground quite literally.
Be assured colleagues when there is a strike it will not be your responsibility; it will once again rest with the British Airways leadership team. They are responsible for bringing us to this place, they are responsible for not respecting you and the job you do, they are responsible for not acknowledging the important and pivotal role you play in the success.
Yes Unite will take you out on strike, because that is what is necessary for you to be treated with the respect you deserve. Yes you will lose a little pay, but your Union has made provisions to give you strike pay because they believe in what you are doing is right. Your union is putting its money where its mouth is.
Do not be fooled into believing you will damage the product and the brand, the leadership team are doing that all on their own, reducing crew, imposing changes to product undermining the hard product and their most important asset YOU. Without you British Airways has nothing. You represent everything that this company stands for, you, are the personification of the hard and soft product that we are famed for.
You need to know we did not lose the court action, if we had we would not be going to trial. We would have been ordered; to pay BA’s over inflated legal costs, we were not. The fact British Airways cannot defend their ludicrous belief that your agreements are not contractual, will cost them dearly when they potentially have to pay compensation to each and everyone of you for the imposition of the crewing levels.
Please be assured the package is not going to be put at risk, BA need to shed the crew to make way for less expensive crew, they cannot afford to withdraw the severance package and part time contract offers as the schedule has already been set to accommodate the reduction. They are as the saying goes “hoisted by their own petard”
As for the rest of it…. It amounts to smoke and mirrors an attempt to bribe you, to deflect your attention from their undertakings in the short term. Why is there a need for a fixed monthly travel payment? Fleet transfers at Heathrow, what about Gatwick? Why has the ops and choice agreement been totally ignored? Why is there temporary promotion on Worldwide?
When you take the time to understand the answers to the ‘WHY’s” then you will be clear that the only course of action is for you to vote YES and stop the madness.
The assertion, that Unite, will be talking to British Airways in the near future, will be dealt with by the Joint General Secretaries, they will communicate with you in due course.
We are astounded that this leadership team would have the audacity to try and buy off the safety of the redeployment agreement and career link for a few paltry shares and a ticket. When all else fails these agreements are the safety net, we will not be party to an arrangement that isolates our friends and colleagues at Gatwick and sneaks compulsory redundancy through the back door…. free ticket, you can stick it!
Finally it needs to be said… it's a shame that you did not think about our customers Mr Francis when you were hatching your audacious plans, it's a shame you did not value your greatest asset, your crew. Shame on you the leadership team, for trying to palm off the responsibility for poor business decisions onto your employees… we are going to vote YES because you have failed us, our customers and our company."
If you want to read yesterday's "press release", it's here:
http://uniteba.com/ESW/Files/BAcabin...llotstarts.pdf
Possibly the most absurd sentence you can imagine: "Be assured colleagues when there is a strike it will not be your responsibility".
I can assure you it most certainly will be, as will be the consequences to you.