Unite has today notified British Airways that it intends to open a ballot for strike action among Heathrow cabin crew. The ballot will open on Tuesday June 29 and close on Tuesday July 27, raising the prospect of strikes at Heathrow during the busy summer period.
Brirish Airways has said,
"Once again, Unite and its cabin crew branch Bassa have demonstrated their selfish lack of concern for our customers and their own colleagues.
Their apparent wish to target the summer holidays of tens of thousands of families is deplorable.
However, should there be any further industrial action, we are determined to keep even more of our customers flying.
We will strengthen our contingency plans and aim to fly from Heathrow 100 per cent of longhaul operations and a substantial proportion of shorthaul services in addition to our full normal programme from Gatwick and London City.
Unite has shown its weakness by excluding from this ballot Gatwick cabin crew, who have never believed its claims that the company's actions have been unreasonable. Unite and Bassa are interested only in representing those who accept their narrow view of the world.
We believe our crew would vote to accept our offer to Unite which guarantees pay rises for two years, protects existing crew's terms and conditions and leaves Heathrow crew the best-rewarded in the UK airline industry".
Oh dear, BASSA are getting desperate only balloting Heathrow crew - funny I thought LHR and LGW were all part of the same NSP. The percentages may be better if they only ballot LHR crews but the absolute numbers will show this as a failed action. That is, of course, if BASSA can run a legal ballot this time around.