Just sent to me
Snow/Disruption/Free for all?
Bill Francis has just written to all crew via ESS, commending us (crew) for adopting a “can do” attitude in the face of the severe weather.
It would appear somewhat ironic that perhaps no one has epitomized this spirit more than him and his department.
The weather handed him a further opportunity to fully demonstrate his complete and utter disregard for any agreement that simply does not suit him.
It would appear that when he refers to a “can do” spirit, he refers to his own - in so much as he “can do” whatever he wants, whenever he wants.
He has asked for flexibility and yet has given none; since the arrival of the snow your cabin crew agreements have, in effect been ripped up. Whether at LHR or LGW, Eurofleet or Worldwide, they have quite simply been routinely and completely ignored. Yet any crew member who dares to be late because of the extreme weather is punished by classing it as an “unacceptable” reason!
Duties are altered, rules bent and then broken at will; they just do not care anymore.
The disruption agreement has NOT been agreed, yet crew are being forced to work to it; hotel standbys have been invented, aircraft leave short of crew and are breaking duty rules on an hourly basis.
We issued an email warning that this could occur and for individuals to be aware of their own rules; if they were then asked to break them, they would already be aware of what could and could not be asked of them.
Within hours, the threat of legal action from British Airways was received at Unites’ office in central London, claiming that if your union in any way encouraged our members to be aware of their own agreement rules, BA would seek action against us for “unofficial industrial action” and seek to declare our impending ballot illegal, alongside seeking massive financial damages.
Are they correct? Only a court could decide and with the result in December, your union had little alternative than to err on the side of caution.
We could not risk jeopardising your ballot.
Advice for each individual is available on our website, and we think it important that you read it as a matter of urgency.
Your union has been placed in an extremely difficult position, one we have never faced before. We have, quite simply been prevented, due to legal technicalities, from protecting you, or ensuring that your agreements are not broken; our hands have been tied. To avoid any risk of BA arguing you are taking unofficial action before a ballot you must ensure you work normally and as directed by your managers.
The irony is that British Airways sought to commence talks in central London this week, in an attempt to reach an agreement to solve the impending ballot, whilst simultaneously branding as worthless the agreements that we already currently have.
Welcome to the future. We have tried to warn you for over a year now that this day was coming; it has now arrived. They just don’t care what an agreement says, if it suits they will ignore it, and if your union tries to defend you, they will attempt to silence us.
For now as crew we are finding it difficult to respond collectively without jeopardising our ballot for an organised industrial fight back, yet in only 12 days time, you will have your power back in the form of a vote, please don’t waste it!