The BASSA forum is apparently coming alive with posts about rosters in the coming week being wiped. It looks like the beginning of a plane to re-roster those who thought they might come in Tuesday to Friday this week for a trip, only to scurry away over the second-stage 4-day strike period. I think BA is going to call someones bluff here.
It is also worth bearing in mind that letter from Bill Francis to all cabin crew:
You will lose pay. By going on strike you are breaking your contract and the law says BA does not have to pay you for work you miss on account of going on strike.
You will not be paid from the point you do not report for duty up to the point we can reasonably allocate you another duty and you come in for that duty. The withdrawal of pay will include MBT or days off at the end of the duty that you do not report for (unless we are able to re-roster you during the MBT days and you report for work normally).
If you take strike action, are re-rostered your next duty during the second strike period and strike again, this may mean that you are not paid from the first day that you strike until we are able to roster you to work after the second strike.
So, for those who have already been on strike, BA has already stopped their pay, and will not be paying them until "the point we can reasonably allocate you another duty and you come in for that duty." The duty will be called by
BA, not some now-mythical roster. If cabin crew
still don't show for something rostered this coming Saturday to Tuesday (27-30 March) then that is going to be a major slice of pay and allowances - well over a weeks worth.
And still, strikers will not be working until BA says so. They might want to reflect very carefully on that.
Unite doesn't seem to have done it's sums. If it claims as many of it's members are on strike as it says, then how long does Unite think it can pay strikers the promised £30/day? If one generously assumes that Unite will only pay for the 7 announced strike dates (so far), that is £210/striker. Multiply that by the claimed 80% of it's members it keeps telling us are on strike (assume 80% of 11500 members = 9200 x £210) and that is going to cost Unite £1932000! £1.9 million per 7 days, folks! How long would Unite last if BA played hardball? But you and I know that it isn't 80% of BASSA out on strike, nothing like that. And so does Unite, but they seem content to lie publicly about it. Why? Because they are in a serious jam. A corner of their own making. But the lies and subversion will finally catch them out.
BASSA's latest missive is suggesting that strike breakers should be the first people put on to a New Fleet contract. There seems to be a complete blanking out of the fact that if the strikers have jobs after all this, then it is they who are in danger of being on a new, substantially reduced contract. BASSA and Unite - what a team, hey?