The Socialist Worker report on Monday's knees up at Kempton is interesting.
There is some tension between Bassa and the Unite leadership. As Duncan Holley, a sacked Bassa rep, put it, “Unite works in ways we don’t understand.” He ended the meeting by declaring, “We will never give up, as people all over the country are looking to us. We will begin a ballot as soon as possible.”
So Duncanned doesn't understand how Unite works, despite the union having been in existence for three years. What has he been doing ? Oh yes, growing tomatoes.
There was a hidden gem, namely the attendance figure given for the meeting. Now up to now I have considered that the figures being quoted in the mainstream media were well wide of the mark, but that was probably because they came from BASSA The numbers bandied ranged from 1,000 to 2,000 with some hedging their bets and saying over 1,000. Kempton publish the maximum numbers for the rooms on their web site and it clearly states 750. So it was nice to spot this in the SW report
British Airways (BA) cabin crew will vote in a fresh ballot for industrial action—but as yet there is no timetable for the ballot.
The announcement came as more than 800 workers from the Bassa section of the Unite union met at Kempton Park racecourse on Monday.
Now the SW may well have done a bit of rounding up, but the figure does have a greater ring of truth to it than other figures being quoted.
Last bit. Sorry, just can't resist the opportunity to have a pop at BASSA. Anyone looked at the About Us page on their website recently. Really does need sorting out. e.g.
'The British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (BASSA) is a branch of the Transport & General Worker's Union (T&GWU)
[No its not, it's been Unite for the past three years and you have the Unite logo on this page] exclusively for British Airways cabin crew.
[Not true, there is a BASSA branch also for Thompson Air crew] Our membership is about 10,000,
[I'll refrain from comment on this] which makes us the largest branch of Unite.
[Hang on, you just said you were part of the TGWU, make your mind up]
BASSA is an active and progressive union, which is entirely staffed by elected representatives, all of whom work as BA cabin crew
[um... so the branch sec has got his job back ??].'
Nice to see they haven't lost the ability to get things right.