All of us within British Airways were hoping to be in a position, to be
able to recommend, at long last, a deal that would bring about a welcome
return to normality for our airline.
This has not been possible. After a sensible pause for reflection from
both sides since the last days of industrial action, talks resumed
directly with our General Secretary Tony Woodley and British Airways CEO
Willie Walsh.
These concluded late yesterday evening and were unsuccessful.
Though the dispute was over imposition, British Airways insisted that any
settlement must include several new areas.
* New fleet
* Changes to the disciplinary, grievance and redeployment agreements
* A complete renegotiation of the trade union facilities agreement
* Two year pay freeze
* Two year capped pay deal
* Introduction of monthly travel payment
* Future promotion
* Route transfer procedure to new fleet
* Ops and choice
* New disruption agreement
Though not ideal, with good will on both sides this could have formed the
basis of
"A way forward"
The words were fairly broad and not particularly specific or detailed, as
it would require a huge leap of faith to entrust or guarantee the rest of
your flying career to "good will."
Your union was prepared to fulfill our half of the bargain but in the end
what was missing was the complete absence of any " Good will" on behalf of
British Airways.
Without that, it would be impossible to have the required faith in what
are essentially just words.
Actions speak far louder. A systematic insistence of zealously pursuing an
increasing number, now over fifty, dispute related disciplinaries and
applying disproportionately harsh sanctions - for trivial reasons. Along
side this an obvious desire to permanently "punish " all those, who
participated in a legal and lawful strike have become the stumbling
blocks.
How could we recommend, in good faith acceptance of a set of words, the
spirit of which has already been broken before the ink is dry on the
paper? We would be misleading you and were just not prepared to do that.
British Airways customers must ask why there are still on going threats to
their travel plans, essentially over punitive decisions our CEO opted to
take. If he had not chosen to take these actions, this dispute could well
have now been resolved.
It would be wise to reflect that for many in higher management the focus
appears to be on crushing cabin crew, rather than the business of running
an airline and carrying passengers. There simply is no sensible business
rationale to insist on enforcing decisions that will affect between 4000
and 5000 people permanently, unless it is over pride or a desire for
revenge. It simply does not make sense.
There will of course be an on line ballot to ask your views in the next
few days, but to be absolutely clear, we have no other choice but to join
both Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson in recommending that you join us in
rejecting this proposal .
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Unite Cabin Crew (Former Amicus Section)
www.uniteba.com