From the Guardian...
"The bitter industrial dispute between British Airways and Unite resembles Life on Mars, the BBC drama set in the 1970s, according to Les Bayliss, one of the candidates in the union's leadership election, which begins next week.
In a thinly disguised dig at his leadership rival, Len McCluskey, who has been a vocal supporter of the strike, he told the Guardian that the union lost the year-long dispute a "long time ago". "It [the dispute] has been disastrous," he said. "It has lowered our standing and reputation. We need to make sure it never happens again."
His outspoken criticism of the way Unite leaders have handled the BA dispute will further inflame an election campaign that has exposed the infighting and factionalism that continues to plague Unite.
Bayliss is presenting himself as the moderate candidate in the election to become general secretary of Unite, the UK's largest union. His main rival, McCluskey, is supported by Tony Woodley, one of the union's two current joint general secretaries. Bayliss is backed by Derek Simpson, the other joint general secretary.
Referring to the cult television series – centred around a police officer who is hit by a car in 2006 and wakes to find himself working at the same police station in 1973 – he said the BA dispute demonstrated that the union militancy that characterised the 1970s and 1980s did not work. "We have nothing to show for it [the BA dispute]," he said. "It shows that as an organisation we have got to focus on issues in a different way. It was like looking at an episode of Life on Mars with Willie Walsh on one side and Tony Woodley on the other."