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So what happened?
Dec 20th, 2009 by admin
Firstly, we need to clearly state that the legal injunction received by British Airways was absolutely and categorically nothing to do with the legality of the issues over which the ballot was held, the length of the action called, or the strength of your vote.
The pilots attempted industrial action was injuncted over the issues that they had chosen to ballot over - ours was not.
It was obtained by exploiting a legal loophole by a judge who was willing to allow, what is in essence a technicality, to push the balance of the law even further towards an employer that without conscience, was willing to use it.
The law is designed to make it as hard as possible for ordinary people to take industrial action; this ruling has made it even harder.
It stemmed from a new and far reaching interpretation around the balloting procedure; the union is required to provide British Airways a list of every single person it intends to ballot for action and then later, a further list of those who would take part in any subsequent action.
This task is always difficult, as many people don’t keep their details, address etcetera up to date on our records, and any discrepancy, believe it or not, is potential grounds for a challenge. However, this particular ballot was made even more difficult due to the fact that approximately 800 people were taking severance during the actual ballot. The union had no way of knowing who these people were and when/if they had decided to accept their offers and leave.
British Airways declined to provide that information.
Legal advice indicated that as they were employed at the time of the ballot and as their leaving date/offer was not guaranteed, they were entitled to vote; therefore excluding them could, in itself, be grounds for a legal challenge.
Our QC - one of the most respected experts in industrial law - was confident that the inclusion or indeed exclusion, had not affected the ballot in any significant way; after all, the disputed number was only some 800 people and over 9514 people had supported the yes vote, with just 772 voting no - a 92.49% unequivocal vote.
On top of that, the union had worked very hard to ensure that our lists were as accurate as possible, given that is was an almost impossible task to individually identify these people.
This judgement created a previously unheard of interpretation and thus set a dangerous precedent for all ordinary people - the basic human right to withdraw your labour to protest against the way an employer is treating you, has suffered a massive blow. In a supposed free country, the establishment eroded our rights a little bit further.
It was recognised by many of the more intelligent press, even if they had opposed the strike, as a blow against democracy.
Virtually all of the media’s own legal correspondents universally agreed that BA had no case, yet somehow they won; most experts were astonished.
How was it for you?
Not good we would imagine. British Airways unleashed and conspired with the more sensational elements of the press, to unleash a media feeding frenzy upon its own cabin crew. Our own management was content to sit back and destroy the reputation and good standing of its own public face - its own cabin crew. The fact that this was ultimately also destroying British Airways - as to most people, cabin crew are British Airways - seemed to have escaped them entirely.
The vilification that crew suffered was simply outrageous; most of it deliberately induced and inspired by our own management who were more than willing to publish misleading and inflated salaries and comparisons, to assist and actively encourage this false reporting with an unprecedented “dirty tricks” style campaign.
They helped build a wave of hysterical press reports, which in the end led to crew suffering abuse and assaults on their way to work. They even went so far as to leak personal details to The Daily Mail, in an attempt to smear your Chairperson and other reps. As we warned you in advance that they would, they showed what they really think of crew behind the syrupy “It’s your BA” platitudes.
How ironic that CSDS are threatened with facing serious criminal charges and even could end up in jail if they lose the passenger information list, as it’s covered under “data protection”, and yet at exactly the same time they pass on our personal details to further their own ends. Perhaps they will now also face those same charges themselves.
They say the first casualty of war is truth, and this has proven to be the case.
Many crew were understandably, wounded and hurt by the press reports, but try not to be, it wasn’t personal; they don’t know you as people. These reporters were not interested in right or wrong, but a story, an angle. They would never let the truth get in the way of a good story, the more sensational the better.
It was about a false image, an image provided courtesy of your manager.
Bill Francis offered to “lead us through this” when in reality he had already led us into it.
So No thanks Bill, we’re all better of without you.
Headlines are hurtful, but they are also tomorrow’s chip papers. The Daily Mail berated us and then the next day berated British Airways for running a low cost baggage system and not paying enough overtime!
The Guardian, one of the few papers who grasped the implication of what this was really all about, described the public’s hostility to crew standing up for themselves as
“The ill-informed, acting as cheerleaders in a race to the bottom” and our management as “dangerously reckless”, branding the legal judgement against us as “transparently political”. They alone grasped that this was not about disrupting anyone’s Christmas but a last and desperate gesture from a disillusioned workforce.
Public support would have been nice and we didn’t get it, but remember it’s also very fickle; 12 hours after our strike was called off, we were forgotten, yesterday’s news. Except for us, the issues are not forgotten; they haven’t been solved and we’re still left fighting for our future. If we had received more public support, we doubt it would have changed Mr. Walsh’s intransigence; only we are able to do that.
Willie Walsh is still running this company into the ground, whether the press is interested or not, as we still have families to support and mortgages to pay, we are still very interested.
Negotiation is the only way; imposition does not work. Our day may have been delayed but it will come; we will get our voices heard, either through negotiation or through the ballot - we are still fully prepared for both.
Unite has already notified British Airways of our intention to re-ballot at the beginning of January; the process will be arranged during the Christmas break and database checking will take place, through the night if required. If Mr. Walsh does not take this opportunity, courtesy of the courts, to negotiate and bring about peace, it will again be wasted like so many opportunities before, and our airline will be in the headlines for all the wrong reasons all over again. He has a duty as the CEO of our company to act responsibly and to not jeopardise all our futures to satisfy his own
PR about how tough and anti-union he is.
Don’t be disheartened; ordinary people stood up to a bully and faced down a huge corporate machine with millions at its disposal; they threw every dirty trick in the book at us. No, we didn’t win but we also didn’t lose; it’s not over until the galley girl sings and as we said before, she hasn’t even warmed up.
As the British Airways “Dirty tricks” machine deemed it appropriate to publish misleading comparisons of our salaries, we wondered if perhaps Bill Francis, Tony McCarthy, James Farren or Sally Munroe-Smith etcetera would do the same with theirs and their equivalents. Or even better, how about Mr Walsh?
Probably not; so as a bit of Christmas cheer, we offer you a comparison of our own.
Barack Obama -
President of The United States
Annual salary $400,000
President of the United States
Leader of the free world
Commander in Chief
Noble peace prize-winner
Charismatic and charming leader
Tall and handsome
Brought hope to millions
Tried to take his people with him during difficult times
Inclusive and gracious
Attempted to remodel America to be a more open, fairer society
Access to healthcare for all, not just the rich
Willie Walsh -
Airline CEO
Times online reports Willie Walsh’s BASIC annual salary as £743,000 or $1,200,945.94
None of the above
Doubt we will see The Daily Mail picking that particular story up!
The anxiety and stress caused to you all needs to stop we need a pause for peace; you need time to recover from all that has happened. After this communication we feel it best to leave you some time and allow you to enjoy time with friends and family, or for the unlucky, even passengers!
Thank you for believing in your union, your courage and strength should be a shining example to others. You are just the best people and it is truly an honour to represent you. Your messages to the reps are gratefully received.
Come the New Year, we will resume the fight to preserve your prosperity; they haven’t beaten us yet and sooner rather than later your voice will be heard, one way or the other.
Negotiation or ballot, the choice rests with Mr. Walsh.
Wherever you find yourself in the world this Christmas, may your God bless both you and your family with peace.
Sincerely,
All of your BASSA and Amicus Reps
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools.....
.... Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man (BA cabin crew member!), my son
Taken from “If” by Rudyard Kipling