More clutching at straws from the BASSA website (my bold):
We need to ask for your help..
Today is the last day to have the opportunity to cast your vote and determine your own future.
You stand at a crossroads and the decisions you take in casting your vote will shape both your own and everybody else’s future.
No it’s not in the general election! Its on YOUR trade union website. The decision you make there will affect you far more personally and directly than who ever ends up in Government.
There is an offer on the table. Your union recommends that you do not accept it. Incredibly some people have voted to accept it, which is of course is their choice but it is clear that they have done so without any explanation or understanding of what it will mean to them and everyone else!
So we need your help. If every person who reads this makes just a small effort, talks to just one other person and gets them to vote, the impact will be massive.
Need an example. How about “Monthly travel payment” what’s the motivation behind that?
Simple, it’s a short term diversion to distract you! ….To make you less bothered as your routes and work is moved to new fleet, double nights go, best routes go…. But that’s okay, because for a time you still get your “Monthly payment”
For how long? That’s right it doesn’t say…
And...
Duncan Holley
Today Duncan Holley BASSA Branch Secretary was sacked from British Airways as a Eurofleet CSD.
This has happened solely because of his other role as the branch secretary of our union and stemmed from a “new” interpretation by cabin crew management surrounding the agreed rights of recognized union officers to be released to undertake union duties over a handful of days in late December, last year.
Duncan is a man that has encompassed the core values of our union for longer than most people can remember!
Something you learn very early as a union rep is that it’s easy to have opinions. It’s less easy to stand up for them. It’s easy to recount what you would tell management to do and where to ‘shove it’ in a bar or restaurant down route. It’s less than easy in real life. Often those that shout the loudest are furthest from the fight.
Duncan Holley was an exception to that rule. He has always had the strongest opinions and principles possible, but at the same time, he was what you would have expected him to be - utterly fearless and unafraid to represent your views to our management, and if they were not prepared to listen, then he would make sure they did.
There are no shades of grey with Duncan. He is “black and white”. If it’s right, it’s right and if it’s wrong, then it’s wrong and he never hesitates to tell anybody who needs to know that.
He inherited those principles from his predecessor Mike Coleman- who was also sacked by British Airways around the time of the 1997 dispute. He inherited a strong union but under his leadership there is no doubt, we are even stronger.
His integrity and strength, but above all courage is second to none. Duncan is a pillar of this union, and without leaders like him, this union would not function.
Despite the huge shadow this has cast over both him and the toll on his family for nearly 6 months, he has never once put his interest above the interest of our members or asked for any extra consideration. If a deal could be found that protected you our members he was content with that, regardless of his own fate. He has always put the interests of something he believes in with all his heart first - he believes that cabin crew are good people, who deserve the best. He does his utmost to try and get that for you - Ultimately it has cost him his job, but being the man he is, he would have it no other way.
People often ask “what has the union ever done for me?”
Take a look at Duncan Holley and you will see exactly what the union and its reps are doing for you! Take a moment and watch the “something inside so strong” video. Reflect on the image of Duncan on a spring morning less than two years ago and see what he has now given for this union. Nobody could have given or sacrificed more, without people like Duncan, we simply would not have a union.
He does not deserve to be treated in this way...
Well he shouldn't have taken time off work when he was told not to, should he? It's a sackable offence in my company, too.