Snas:
Regarding your comment:
However when it comes to press releases, which the press happily copy and paste more or less verbatim, BASSA/Unite are the clear winners. They come out thick and fast containing lots of words such as “estimate” or “believe”.
I am in agreement that Unite/BASSA definitely are getting the majority of the sound bite time...but after some thought, I believe there may be a reason for BA's careful and selective communications.
As I understand the process (and anyone here please feel free to correct me if I am misinformed) in order for BA to call for new contracts there is not only a time restriction but BA must also show a good faith effort was made to negotiate. Obviously, there hasn't been much of that happening lately be either side.
If BA offers to come back to the table it certainly will want to enter the room from a position of strength.
So you hold your cards, issuing factual communications regarding flight status, passengers flown, staffing attendance, loss of Staff Travel, loss of pay, etc., and you concentrate on keeping as many passengers flying as possible, hopefully increasing flights as the strike dates continue.
Striking staff are left to ponder their choices realizing that the personal impact of the strike is much greater than one or two days pay, there are much bigger numbers at play.
BA and the majority of its employees hope the result is more and more cabin crew reporting for service.
...and when you hit the 70-80% of Cabin Crew reporting as scheduled you are ready to talk, to both the Press and the Union.
BA would be in a position to meet the requirement of good faith efforts to settle the dispute, but they will be facing a Union that knows it does not have the backing of a significant majority of its members.
Unite/BASSA must negotiate reasonably because they are facing a deadline knowing that if an agreement, any agreement, isn't reached their entire house of cards comes down.
Not a bad approach.
..though BA could just be disorganized in the
PR department.
