Possible scenarios if the legality of the ballot is in doubt:
(1) BASSA delay IA until the New Year, and then try and convince the public they've done it because they care about their passengers and didn't want to ruin their Xmas.
Easily seen through.
(2) BASSA have to reballot because they made a mistake the first time, delaying the process to the point where they might as well wait until Feb 1st anyway.
Egg on Face.
But I will also say - it is all hypothetical at the moment, because I cannot find this quote attributed to Wicked Willie either. Anyone? Otherwise "Could I ask that those comments be stricken from the record, your honour"
All I could find was this from The Times:
BRITISH AIRWAYS is braced for the result of a strike ballot tomorrow that could lead to widespread disruption of Christmas flights. The airline’s 13,000 cabin crew are voting whether to take action in their long running dispute over pay, redundancies and working conditions. If they vote yes — which Unite, their union, thinks likely — the action will take place over the next month, raising the prospect of BA being grounded during the festive season.
The ballot result will be made public at a mass meeting of flight attendants at Sandown Park racecourse in Surrey. Unite sources said strike dates could be made public at the same time. This month BA cut cabin crew by one on all long-haul flights and imposed a series of other changes to working conditions. It will employ all-new cabin crew on cheaper contracts and wants to cut the equivalent of 2,000 jobs through voluntary redundancies and part-time working.
The first 1,000 cabin crew to take redundancy are due to leave the company this week.
Separately, the airline is expected to reveal the latest valuation of its pension deficit in the next fortnight. BA has the largest deficit relative to its stock-market value of any FTSE 100 company and analysts think the valuation, which is undertaken every three years, could show the deficit has risen to about £3.9 billion. The airline’s market value is £2.3 billion.
(Apologies for the irony, but I had to laugh on seeing an article entitled:
Crisis affords chance to remove ills of past, says Walsh - The Irish Times - Wed, Dec 09, 2009
And then on reading it, finding it has nothing to do with the current dispute!
)