I suspect that historically the reason BA has told them to stick to the rules is so they don't have the CC unions kicking off so potentially this all could be open for change.
Ottergirl, I feel you are spot on here. I remember during the Gate Gourmet dispute, we were put in a hotel on sby 10 miles from LHR. I literally lived down the road from the hotel but the DOM's said PLEASE do not go home as we don't want any problems with the unions, and should stick to what has been agreed' IE; stay at the hotel no matter what. What was farciscal, was that there were crew crying out for hotel rooms as everything had been canx, but couldn't be given them because the likes of me HAD to have one
So there has no doubt in the past been managers/DOM's etc who have literally been scared to death of upsetting Bassa.
I want to make it very clear that we need agreements in place, or else it would be anarchy, but we also need flexibility in the event of bad weather/disputes etc, something Bassa have not been good at in the past IMO
PS wecome PHfelix. You will find us a pretty honest bunch on here as long as you stick to the facts!! Don't worry, this will be over soon. My personal hope is for Duncan Holley to press the nuclear button again, and go for a 2-3 month strike. That will sort the men from the boys.
Hula - great post. Sums it up nicely
Winston smith
In the future this will all change. Bassa will not be dictating product changes anymore. I am part of a team that are looking into changes
to the onboard product . BA wants crew who are experianced, streetwise, know what they are talking about etc, to move things forward. Not a Bassa rep who hardly ever flies, and who is destructive towards the company rather than constructive. We were told by Bill francis that the days of Bassa DICTATING these types of changes are gone. All I can say is that its long overdue.
Finally as an aside, I flew with a lovely crew member the other day who flew with Duncan Holley a couple of years ago. Quite simply said he was THE worst supervisor he had ever met. Absolutely NO idea what he was diong, and was on the phone before and during boarding attending to his union matters apparently