British Airways - CC Industrial Relations Mk VI

[Chuchinchow]

The cost of intransigence

The unions' legal costs for the most recent (failed) action in the High Court have been estimated at somewhere north of £1,200,000. I suppose that a similar drain on the unions' assets for each of the two previous actions conducted last year can be assumed. Let's be charitable, and make that a round three million pounds in total.

Mercifully for BASSA and CC89 subscription payers, BA did not claim its costs in the earlier court cases, but it could well do so for the case that ended yesterday. Again, let us mitigate and estimate those costs on the (very) low side at a further £3,000,000.

So BASSA and CC89 between them have incurred a potential liability of at least six million pounds for Lala Malone's intransigence, vanity and stupidity.

I do not take into account intangible losses, such as loss of credibility, both among the public at large and in the trades unions community. Let's face it: would any person with a scintilla of common sense or intelligence ever pay heed to BASSA's chairman and directing force now or in the future?

My question are these: if BASSA, CC89 and their backers Unite and/or Amicus are forced to pay British Airways' legal costs - and it is entire possible that Willie Walsh will claim for every last penny, having won at every legal step - where will the money come from and what will be the consequences for BASSA/CC89?

I can see the action moving around the corner from the High Court in the Strand to the Bankruptcy Courts in Carey Street.

The ultimate people to pay will, of course, be BA cabin crew, who have their monthly union dues lifted from their pay packets.

Lala Malone and the rest of the cabin crews' union leaders will evade any personal liability, of course.