Extension to strike period
Snas,
The legislation dictates that you must commence industrial action within 28 days of announcing the ballot result and give the employer at least 7 days notice of every day of strike action. There is also however a clause which states that if both sides agree to an extension of the 28 days, then the deadline can be extended to a mutually agreed date. So Willie was asked by Derek Simpson if he would be prepared to support an extension so that Unite could run a full paper ballot consulting on BA's offer. Willie agreed on the condition that strike dates wouldn't be announced whilst the ballot was taking place but within hours of having agreed to do this with Mr Simpson, Unite then announced the strike dates anyway. The first Willie knew about this was when he got a call from the BA press office saying it was on Sky News!!!
Hopefully that clears up the issue about the legislation and the 28 day period.
It also shows how utterly divided Unite are. One general Secretary says one thing whilst the other does the opposite, and then there is McLunk, Jack Dromie and Steve Turner lobbing grenades around to boot....what a shower. And I didn't even get onto BASSA lot.....