Cost savings
This is my understanding. BA wants £127m in cost savings from cabin crew by March 2011, and the crew reductions amount to £62.5m per annum. Furthermore, 1,003 crew left on voluntary redundancy last year and another 3,000 will go part-time. The real negotiations should be about how to get £127m in cost savings. But what does Unite do? Keep banging on about restoring crew complements and appealing against the judgement that working one down was reasonable.
I fail to see how Unite's latest proposal of a two-year freeze on pay and allowances, amounting to £12m, will make a difference. I have some considerable doubt that there will be an agreement by next Tuesday.