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Day 5 - Family day.Mar 28th, 2010 by admin
We’re getting stronger and stronger as each day passes.
We know a lot of our members are mums and dads with young children, so we tried to make today a little different and welcoming for them to attend. It was a family themed day, with face painting, bouncy castle and kid’s games; bottom line, everyone loved it, young and old!
It was a fantastic and sunny day and our biggest turnout so far.
The BA press machine is in overdrive trying to convince the world and fellow crew that everything is normal and everyone is turning up for work - they are NOT.
This is to try and weaken your resolve and make you think you are alone in taking strike action - you are not, it’s running around 50/50 between those going on strike and those breaking the strike but remember, of those going to work, the total includes pilots, ground staff operating as crew, temp crew and ICCS.
They are also deliberately misleading the press by counting inbound crew in the figures they release.
After eagle eyed crew revealed the truth about mounting cancellations by simply monitoring BA.com. They are now attempting to conceal cancellations and empty departures by removing the F for “Freighter” prefix to the flight number and instead have added a one so the BA039 becomes the BA1039 in the departures. To the untrained eye it looks as though many more flights are departing. They are not, these are empty positioning aircraft because they have no crew. It’s concealment on a substantial scale, to try and win the
PR battle, simply take a look for your self before they disguise it another way and you should be able to see this quite easily.
The media is now beginning to see through the spin; Sky News has shown the best analysis so far, stripping away cancelled flights, empty flights and code share flights to reflect a far, far lower number of “real” departures.
This is not in any way meant to make light of going on strike and the impact that it can have; we know taking strike action is daunting and worrying for every single person, but we are now getting a steady stream of first time strikers and people who worked last weekend that have now changed their mind, coming along to Bedfont because they want to be a part of it.
We have had to open a third car park to accommodate everyone who wants to join the burgeoning numbers at Bedfont.
Coaches will be coming down from Manchester and Birmingham tomorrow with our commuting members to join us.
With crew being such shy, retiring individuals, it was not surprising that the open-top bus was still the most popular draw, amassing the longest queues - with the opportunity to sing, shout and wave our flags around the airport!
This is the most critical part of this whole dispute, WE CANNOT EMPHASISE THIS ENOUGH! If we stay strong and united, we will send the strongest possible message that Mr. Walsh must return to the negotiating table. If people go to work then that division will be perceived as a weakness and simply convince Mr. Walsh that he does not need to negotiate.
WE WILL NEED YOUR STRENGTH MORE THAN EVER TOMORROW AND TUESDAY- WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BE COMPLACEMENT; PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE THIS TO OTHERS-DON’T LET THEIR MIND GAMES AFFECT YOUR DETERMINATION- EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO GOES TO WORK WEAKENS US AND MAKES A NEGOTIATED SETTLEMNET ALL THE MORE DIFFICULT.
If you have any doubts over your colleagues’ commitment and the sacrifices being made, today we were humbled by two stories in particular.
One young, Italian new-entrant crew member on Worldwide is a commuter from Rome and came today to join with us - paying for his own flight and four night’s accommodation at the Arora. He went on strike and was willing to lose his staff travel in order to support his fellow crew.
Another striking part-time main crew member had been given 13 days of xxxx as she went on strike for a nine day Aussie - she will have been deducted 13 days of pay - she also commutes from Paris. Again she has lost a substantial part of her earnings and lost her staff travel - she is on the picket line every single day.
We all should be humbled and made all the more determined by their selfless sacrifice; all we ask is that you also play your part and join us...
COME TO BEDFONT, WE NEED YOU! OUR STRIKE IS WORKING BUT ONLY IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF IT.