Lightbulbs its not in my opinion, a punishment for striking crew to loose staff travel.If the airline is faced with the potential of thousands of crew striking and potentially bring the airline to a halt...it has to take radical action to minimise the volumes of crew participating in industrial action.So...a controversial threat had to be made and acted on accordingly.The possibility of the removal of staff travel did influence many "Unsure" union members to continue to work..Clearly those union members who felt ethically obligated to follow their unions call...will /would strike regardless of the threats.
I passionately disagree with the unions position...they appear to be holding the company and all of its employees from all departments to ransom. Consequently, due to being able to attend union meetings as well as the two earlier court cases found it so easy to resighn my membership.
If I was naive enough to believe in the unions spin...then, as I utilise staff travel frequently the possibility of losing it would have been a big enough enticement for me to to continue to report for duty.,i would have thus "reluctantly" been in surpport of the airline in this context.
Imagine if I am on standy to fly to the Carribean for example...often oversubscibed with standby staff...and with a seniority of 20 years ,and, having come in to work as my roster requires me to do so during industrial action...I am faced with the prospect of a crew member, senior to me who striked costing the airline at least 7 million poiunds a day in lost revenue....getting on the flight before me, and potentially leaving me behind at Gatwick...is that fair or just.....NO.
You may argue that they are following their unions call and agree with their ideological stance to take pragmactic action rather than to negotiate ....well the airline has a right to do the best it can to protect its business
.I know of an individaul friend of mine who worked in accounts.. she returned late back from her holiday as she could not get a flight on standby...as her role was quite complex, BA had to employ three agency staff to carry out her normal role her small deparmtent became momentarily chaotic without her!.She lost acess to staff travel for four years.She did not protest or contest she accepted that her lack of forward planning was costly for the airline.
Many of my pro strike collegues argue that staff travel was reinstated to ground staff several years ago when they were on strike.....the company was not haemorraging money to the extent that it is now!
If staff travel were to be reinstated it would encourage the union and its activists to continue to attempt to bring the airlines to its knees with its annual threat of industrial action.This cannot go on any more surely....
As has been stated by so many on this thread, staff travel is not contractual, its an earned perk that the airline has a right to take away ...that is also just the way is.
What I see as punishment is the fact that many employees in BA have genuine fears regarding the future exhistance of the airline and thus their ability to maintain a longterm standard of living for themselves and or families....with this pointless strike.
Not a single department has come out in surpport for cabin crew...we usually get echoes of sympathy from baggage handlers...ground staff etc.
Many including my cousin (Ground staff ) see this as total commercial suicide
So no I do not see it as punishment.Indeed the offer to reinstate it is there....just not in its former position.
Some of the earlier suggestions are reasonable ie if seniority were to be given back then the non strikers who worked should be given an automatic higher on load priority.
These are just my own personal opinions.
PS Tiramsu good on you for positively inspiring your crew.
PPSEddy and Lightbulbs thanks for your illustrating your views regarding the unions perspective. I may not agree with your stance on most issues but yourself and lightbulbs do add vigour to the debate here.
Bridchen I am totally with you as I keep being rostered as days off/part time or down route also over the strikes. I operated lastTuesday when the strike was momentarily called off.
A huge thank you to all crew ,volunteer cabin crew backroom staff surpport, etc for enabling BA to reach all of its national and international destinations. and to be able to operate its reduced schedule seemlessly.You all have my utmost surpport.
I look forward to reporting to work on Monday.