Dear Colleague
I am sorry to be writing to you again, but it is very important that you read this letter. It contains information that will affect you personally.
If you are a member of Unite, you are again being asked a question that will have serious repercussions for you, our customers and our company: whether you will support a strike or support our customers.
There has been talk of potential strikes for many months now. We cannot go on like this. In December we saw what our customers and the wider public thought about a strike. Their patience is running out. It is time to be absolutely clear about what will happen if a strike takes place.
I know many of you were shocked by the prolonged nature of the strike that Unite planned at Christmas, and the distress this caused for the customers you serve. It damaged our reputation and cost our company millions of pounds in lost revenue at a time when we are already facing record annual losses.
Since early this month, we have been holding discussions with Unite. We had already planned the next phase of the talks – and then on Monday the union told us that it was calling another strike ballot. As you know, we suffer financially as soon as there are headlines about strikes, because our customers start booking with other airlines.
We have a great heritage, but we must strive for a great future. The aviation industry becomes more competitive every year and as the news from Japan showed this week, even the most famous global airlines will go bankrupt if they fail to adapt to what is happening around them.
I have listened to what matters to you
We must bring our cabin crew costs in line with those in other airlines to ensure a bright future for everyone in IFCE and for our many thousands of BA colleagues who have already made contributions to the company’s cost reduction drive.
Over the last year, many of you spoke to me about how you want to approach those savings. You wanted a voluntary approach to redundancies. You wanted to keep your pay and conditions. And you wanted assurances about the future.
Our package offers all of these and meets our cost target. To accommodate the requests from crew for part-time working and voluntary redundancy, we have slightly reduced crew numbers onboard. There will be a two-year freeze on base pay (but not increments), new contracts for future crew, and changes to the worldwide disruption agreement that would put our customers first without changing the existing disruption payments.
If you do not support a strike
If the majority of you choose to support our customers and reject a strike, I will continue to offer these assurances. They would allow you to:
Keep your current individual terms and conditions
Keep your current basic pay, with 2%-7% increment rises this financial year and next for 75% of you
Keep your average variable pay through the offer of a monthly payment
Keep flying an unrivalled network of routes and staying in quality hotels while you’re there
Keep lifestyle choices, either by changing fleets at Heathrow or transferring to part time
Keep a commitment from us to keep talking with Unite about how we recruit new crew
Keep full union representation with an offer from us for Unite to represent future crew.
If you support a strike
Some of you have said that you voted yes in December, not because you thought it would lead to a strike but because you thought it would lead to more talks or a better deal.
What became clear was that voting yes means you consent to going on strike. Full stop. No-one expects it to be different this time.
We can only assume that another yes vote would again lead to an extended strike or series of strikes. This could have a catastrophic effect on our business and our reputation. This is very serious. As a company, we owe it to our customers and all our colleagues to do everything in our power to prevent this outcome.
Therefore before you vote, I want you to be fully aware of the consequences should you vote yes and go on strike. In those circumstances, you would:
Lose staff travel permanently
Lose pay for any duties you miss if you go on strike, including associated days off
We would also need to review all costs in IFCE, including hotels. And of course I would be unable to maintain the assurances for your terms and conditions.
History tells us that absence rises significantly during industrial action. We will assume that anyone who does not report for duty during a strike is taking part in that industrial action.
I understand completely that coming to work during a strike can be daunting. We all know of past examples of intimidation. This will not be tolerated and, if there is a strike, we would put in place measures to protect you. That is something we would talk to you about in more detail nearer the time. For now, I wanted you to be clear before you vote that you need to make an active choice about what you want for your future.
Vote no and back BA
There has been a lot of debate about whether the changes to crew complements were part of your individual contracts. We don’t believe they are. But that is now a matter for the High Court, which is expected to make a decision before the ballot period is over.
Your vote is extremely important. Please think very hard about how you will use it. It is not a bargaining tool for the negotiating table. It is what will decide whether we have a disastrous strike or not.
I have been very frank with you about the consequences of your decision.
Vote no and you vote to support our customers. You vote for stability and retention of your current terms and conditions.
Vote yes and you vote to disown our customers. You vote for instability and a future none of us can be sure about.
This is a critical moment for us all. Alienating our customers, the people who pay our wages, cannot be the right way forward.
Vote no and back BA.
Thank you,
Bill Francis
Head of Inflight Customer Experience