This rather caustic analysis from the GL group:
Summary
If the cabin crew and union leadership are still intent on pushing for industrial action, their jobs are firmly on the line.
Analysis
In delivering the verdict from the High Court today, Mr Justice Sir Christopher Holland said today:
"If the new complements materially and fairly contribute to the preservation of British Airways and more importantly for present purposes job security and pay, how can I condemn the less than extreme changes as unreasonable?"
The union leadership has a straightforward choice:
Either silence their crowing for strike action and get on with the business of turning British Airways around, or continue down the path to oblivion by forcing industrial action.
The whole basis of the union arguments against British Airways’ changes has been obliterated and no legal justification exists to call for strike action.
From the very beginning of this sorry mess, the Unite union has systematically ignored the precarious financial position British Airways is in – without that being secured, job cuts are still a clear and present danger.
British Airways’ oneworld alliance partner, American Airlines too, is being held hostage to similar wage demands by the Transport Workers Union – both unions on both sides of the Atlantic are either too ignorant to understand the financial weakness both airlines have, or their sheer self-interest coated in stupidity blinds them from seeing how fragile the entire sector is.
Many transport industries have suffered in the wake of this financial recession and quite frankly these union members should be glad that they still have jobs to go to, despite the shift away from premium traffic amidst volatile passenger numbers.
The Unite union has been utterly embarrassed twice by the High Court.
If their leadership has learnt anything, they should stop their posturing and save their members’ jobs by telling them to get back to doing the job they’re paid for.
They are expendable assets and there’s plenty of cabin crew staff looking for work who can easily replace the militant union members at British Airways with no problem at all.
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
Contributed by a Member of the GLG Energy & Industrials Councils