It is clear that Willie Walsh and the Board members of BA who appointed him, are out of control. They represent the worst excesses of Capitalism not seen since the banking disaster. Where the banks got involved in a crooked exploitation of the financial system, BA has sought to profit through rigging fuel surcharges and cargo pricing. In both cases, British Airways has been heavily fined on either sides of the Atlantic, and as far away as Australia. Yet apart from one fall-guy, a hapless BA senior manager by the name of Keith Packer, who was jailed in the USA for 8 months over cargo price fixing, no other senior members of British Airways have taken responsibility for their illegal actions and activity
Willie Walsh wasn't the CEO at the time of the fuel surcharge price fixing, neither was he at the helm during the cargo price fixing. The board were not aware of the telephone discussions being made by senior managers of ALL THE AIRLINES INVOLVED. VA got away without fines as they were the whistle blower for the fuel surcharges and LH got away with the cargo scandal as they blew the whistle on that. ALL OF THE AIRLINES INVOLVED WERE DOING THE SAME THING. The US DOJ was livid as they claimed that these 'cartels' as they described them were unfair whilst the european carriers (not allowed Governmental assistance under EU law) were competing against American carriers that were operating bankrupt under the US Government protection. Fair playing field? I think not. Once again BASSA give a good SWP rhetoric without including the full story.
plus over £1bn lost in inappropriate fuel hedging positions.
Lacking a little in fact again BASSA. The figures posted by BA to the markets show that BA has made a significant gain in its fuel hedging policy even when the policy is not there to make money. Fuel hedging allows the company to 'budget' its fuel bill and removes market volitility over the long term. It is expected to make losses and gains. But lets not let that get in the way of BASSA 'cherry picking' shall we.
the share price is depressed because of his actions, and rather than riding high out of the recession
I really don't understand this one. The share price during the economic collapse was £1.05 at the lowest, that share price this week was running at £2.80 for a company that has only just shown a profit in a market which is still very tenuous and suppressed. These are the BASSA brains that refused to look at the confidential figures as they 'weren't accountants' and thus not interested.
Where are the profit sharing schemes for ordinary employees in BA?
The share schemes as offered to all the other employees during negotiations including the CC but were rejected by BASSA?
BA's cabin crew are being victimised solely for the profit motive
BA cabin crew have enjoyed over inflated T's & C's for many years now. This has been a market correction. Whilst painful it has been, in they eyes of all of the other BA employees who have accepted change over the past decade, necessary.
Judges who are supposed to use common sense and intellect in their deliberations, have cast aside legitimate and lawful democratic ballots because of flimsy technicalities. That is where we are as a democracy in the United Kingdom and it stinks. Unscrupulous employers use this avenue to fight a dispute that they have deliberately created though imposition, using High Court judges to bust unions.
A paragraph direct from the Socialist Workers handbook. Flimsy mistakes? The chairperson of the BASSA board advising members who were not entitled to vote to return the votes anyway as long as they were for IA? Flimsy mistakes? We lost the court case therefore the world is unjust not our case. Sheesh. Wait until Len McKlusky gets his best friend Hugo Chavez over here then we will see the power of the Unions rise again!!! Except we won't. Land grab sharing is all well and good when the people are motivated, trained and diligent. Socialism doesn't work, look at the former Soviet Union where, after the collapse, 99% of the States wealth found its way into 1% of the populations pockets.
But the fact is that MF should be a glaring example of what life would be like in BA, without union representation. For all those crew who went to work during the dispute, this ultimately will be your reward.
MF is a shining example of how just about every other airline in the world does it. The problem is that the BASSA ivory tower has been built so high for so long they can no longer see the ground through their rose tinted clouds. Those on MF do a great job for renumeration that they accepted and signed up for.
Are you prepared as decent people to allow this dictatorship in a democracy to continue? Is it right that you are coerced and bullied into accepting inferior pay and conditions, AFTER the company has turned the corner and is once again, as predicted, making substantial profits? Is it right that your democratically elected union representatives and your union, are trampled over by the mantra, ego and dogmatism of one person? Is it right that colleagues have been suspended and sacked just for supporting the dispute?
The final rabble rousing thetoric of the piece! Have BASSA even allowed their members to see, decide and vote on some of the suggestions? Have BASSA held a poll of members to see what, during negotiations, would be acceptable and what not? Have BASSA been open and fair about supporting ALL of the crew from the most junior and not been insitant on protecting the rights of a few who fell foul of the disciplinary process by their own purile actions? Have BASSA really tried everything to reach an acceptable solution, ones that were put to them not by BA but by their own Unite paymasters? Is it right that the rest of the company employees should have to stand by idly and watch the company acquiesce to a beligerent, bullying and intimidatory Union?
This is why VCC exist, this is why none of the rest of the company support the BASSA line. I don't have any axe to grind with the CC personally, I have always maintained they do an excellent job on the whole. I have flown with MF and they are, indeed, excellent. But then so are 99% of our normal crew as well. Whilst I fully recognise that SH crews are generally not as militant as the LH crews it always seems a shame that the majority get such a bad reputation by the sad, purile and nasty actions of the minority.
I really hope we are seeing the end game play out here and the demise of BASSA will lead to something good with proper, correct and sensible representation for the CC.