Aer Lingus
For anyone wondering either where BA may end up eventually, or what is likely to happen if BA is held not to be able to make changes without Union agreement, may I direct you to the Flight Deck/Rumours & News thread entitled "Aer Lingus to leave Dublin forever"? Specifically posts #109 and 110. These detail results of an Aer Lingus Board meeting this evening resulting from failure to agree a €100 million cost cut plan with Unions.
For those of you who do not like pilots, you will be pleased to hear that it is IALPA who are the bad guys over here. They were the most intransigent work group. However, everything else occuring at Aer Lingus ought to focus minds at BA very clearly. As a reult of IALPA being nowhere near reaching agreement, even though 3 other Unions did reach agreement and cabin crew were very close, this evening Aer Lingus has announced an imposition package across the airline. This will result in compulsory redundancies immediately (per the Board announcement, not simply my opinion). This is on top of previous cuts announced just a few months ago.
One of the strangests aspects of the BA CC dispute to me is the failure to compare what BA is doing with what is happening elsewhere in the aviation industry. BA has put forward some of the least painful suggestions for change, eg so far no compulsory redundancies. I find the "Willie Must Go" argument that seems to underpin the dispute very hard to understand. Who would you like to see replace him? Keep in mind, whoever does so has to have shareholder support, and the shareholders definitely do not support the Union vision of no change. If Walsh does go, it will be because he fails to deliver structural change. Any replacement will push harder for change, and when change comes it will be deeper. Just like Mueller has done in his second (third?) week as CEO of Aer Lingus.
Painful though it may be for some at BA, Walsh looks to be your least bad option to me. Do read the Aer Lingus Board Press Release, though. It will make you think.