I disagree with
Avflyer who says (18 Dec 2010, 12:35) of the Union's strike ballot that
only the militants vote so are always in the majority of votes cast
There were only two occasions this year that the Electoral Reform Service was used for a ballot of Heritage Cabin Crew members of Unite.
_ When the ERS do a ballot this produces an authenticated number for the HCC union members.
1) In the opening months of this year there was a vote to strike.
_ The largest block was those who voted to strike - this accounted for 63% of the 11,691 ballot papers that were distributed.
_ This was a clear and decisive majority of all members of Unite on this
Strike ballot.
1.1) After delays because of Court Hearings the British Airways cabin crew went on strike from 18-22 May, 24-28 May, 30 May 30-3 June and 5-9 June 2010 (there had also been six days of IA in March).
_ The votes for this industrial action had previously been declared by ERS on 22 Feb 2010.
_ I have arranged those voting figures in the form of a table.
_ "Total" = number of ballot papers issued.
_ "Yes" = vote to strike.
_ "No" = vote not to strike.
_ "Spoiled" = spoiled ballot papers.
_ "Not returned" = ballot papers not returned for reasons unknown (which presumably includes the difficulty on long-haul duties to keep up to date with surface mail).
_____________________
Total__
Yes____
No___
Spoiled__
Not returned
Number of ballot papers
_11691
_ 7482
__1789
___11
______2409
Percentages
__________100%
_-_64.0%
_15.3%
__0.1%
___20.6%
2) In July 2010 there was a vote about the New Contract offered by BA.
_ The largest block was those who did not vote - this accounted for more than 54% of the 11,311 ballot papers that were distributed.
_ The interpretation of the various numbers was consequently a topic of some controversy.
_____________________
Total___
Yes___
No___
Spoiled_
Not returned
Number of ballot papers
_11311
__1686
__3419
___3
______6203
Percentages
__________ 100%
_-15.0%
_30.2%
_-0.03%
__54.8%
My opinion
Those who did not return their ballot papers in this "New Contract" vote have been labelled apathetic.
_ If it were me (except that I am a PAX) I possibly would have been one of those who did not return the ballot paper.
_ Certainly the New Contract was an important issue.
_ But what exactly did the words mean?
_ If it were a contract that I was expected to work to, I would have needed the advice of a solicitor (or equivalent) to enable me to understand the meaning and consequences of the clauses of the contract.
_ And what advice did cabin crew have?
_ Well they had BASSA whose chairman had already been criticised by a judge for giving wrong advice.
_ They also had Unite whose Joint Secretary had lost his reputation as a source of knowledge and judgement by his foolhardy prophesy that he could get Staff Travel back in five minutes.
Please don’t label cabin crew as apathetic.
_ They are intelligent, conscientious, hard working people who deserve a better quality of advice than they have been receiving.
Reference for 1) is paragraph number 8 of:-
__link
Reference for 2) is:-
__link