openclimb- Enlighten me, why are the crew going on strike if the changes involve receiving the same pay and more time at home? If that's the case we'll have willie at my airline.
Look Man,
If BA management were trying to decimate the terms and conditions of the cabin crew in a year when they had just made 900 million profit, Id back the cabin crew to the hilt.
Unfortunately, the last couple of years BA has lost about that amount and has come to all the employee groups for cost savings. They didn't ask for equal savings across the board as some employee groups are paid about market rate for the work they do and some, due to past intransigence and weak management, are not. Each employee group could negotiate how it wanted to make up those savings with the proviso that negotioations be finished by 30 June 2009.
All groups came up with negotiated solutions apart from BASSA who, on the basis of a show of hands at a meeting refused to negotiate. Eventually BA imposed the very reasonable cost saving of removing a crew member from most flights with the CSD actually taking part in the service on LH flights.
Since the average cabin crew costs at BA are double what some of their competitors are (anyone who doesn't understand what average means, don't bother to argue this point) this was seen as a reasonable move as it didnt reduce pay at all but the BASSA high command, consisting disproportionatly of long haul CSDs said this was not acceptable. The BASSA following at BA is a bit like a cult with no one being allowed to question the wisdom of the leaders so the membership, being brainwashed as they are, are now being asked to take part in a suicidal strike for what is basically a power struggle over who runs BA.
So you tell me, why, when all other groups at BA have agreed savings to help ensure the long term viability of their employer, should the cabin crew be exempt (when they are already so expensive)?
Why should I, through cuts to my pay and working harder, subsidise the overpaid underworked lifestyles of other work groups in BA who do not pull their weight?
As for being a serious crewmember I stood on a picket line for 11 days in Anchorage Alaska, fighting for the jobs of my colleagues. Something that you probably would never be man enough to do.
Well done. If your fight was against greedy management exploitation of the workforce, then power to your elbow. If it was banging your head against the wall of economic reality as is the case here, then more fool you.
You know nothing about me, the same as you know nothing about this dispute so your supposition about what I would or would not be man enough to do is neither here nor there, is it?