And here I am, making one of my rare appearances here to comment on today's news.... More strikes on the way, eh? They're bound to happen. There won't be a settlement. I know (of) Keith Williams, our new CEO, very well. He is a regular visitor to my neck of the woods and, although he probably won't remember, I've met him before in my local airport.
Anyone who thinks that Mr. Williams heralds a new era of more relaxed industrial negotiation is in for a world of pain. Mr. Williams is an accountant, through and through. A numbers man. That's not to say he wants to run rough-shod over our T&Cs as much as Mr. Walsh may be considered to have done, but nor is the man going to roll over and give the unions what they unreasonably desire.
As the months have passed I've found myself being more and more sympathetic towards my striking colleagues. Sympathetic, but not to the point of wanting to join them on the picket lines.
These are people who have seen this company return to profitability in what remains one of the most harsh trading periods ever. Yet they remain resilient in their quest to win this battle against BA.
Now, I have to say, I don't see that there's a battle anymore. I think it's been lost. WELL AND TRULY LOST. But it could have been won.
Having moved to Gatwick recently - a move seen by many as "crazy" and "downright f*cking f*cked up", I can see first hand that Gatwick represents what I think the company would view as a very, very happy middle ground between Heathrow as-is and Mixed Fleet.
Gatwick offers a happy, contented, gelled crew who do an incredible job for what is, compared to what I used to earn at Heathrow, a very low salary. I've had my problems at Gatwick (which I had previously been reluctant to discuss, but am now happy to talk about and, more importantly, defend myself against), but in general the people here are astonishingly good. Professional, dedicated, loyal and hard working. They actually put me to shame (on occasion
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So when I hear that more strikes are coming, and that the main focus of these strikes is the return of staff travel, I have to wonder if those going on strike actually know why they're walking out, and don't just walk out cos that's what seems 'popular' - to those reading various internet forums, atleast.
With a little negotiation, perhaps Heathrow could have gone to the Gatwick Fleet way of doing things, as opposed to going to what I, personally, see as being one step lower and going for Mixed Fleet's T&Cs.
The new package offered seems to have been cast aside. If it weren't for the staff travel issue, it almost seems as though the new package would be perfectly acceptable - atleast as far as the hype on the telly and on the forums suggests. But considering a majority of those strikers chose to adopt the chant "you can shove your ID90s up your ar*e" during the last industrial action, I cannot help but muse over why striking for staff travel is so desperately important when everything else seems to have been somewhat cast aside.
The problem, I fear, is that people are being pressured - without knowing it - into voting "yes", and into backing up that vote by walking out. If one were to read Crew Forum (.co.uk) they would almost without doubt want to strike. I would, if I read it with any regularity (as it happens, I check in once a month). Though there are maybe only 20 people on there spouting the massively pro-Bassa gumph and urging people to strike, they post frequently and passionnately enough to make it seem as though everyone is on their side.
They're not, though. Far from it.
People still harbour the mis-guided belief that a strong "yes" vote will be enough to encourage the company's leaders to back down. It won't be.
The company's previous leadership has shown that it can run the airline well during "massive" industrial disruption. And, indeed, the company has put into place additional measures to ensure that the disruption this time will be greatly reduced.
Regardless of what the union would have you believe, coming from someone who worked during three rounds of previous strike action, things ran.... well, almost better than usual.
I agree that training our colleagues from other departments to work in our own is a crafty, somewhat underhand tactic; and to those colleagues who have volunteered to do our job, with the exception of our flight crew colleagues perhaps, I remind them that very, very few of their jobs require the same level of training they have had to undertake (off-the-job) as ours, and that helping BA this time around, though respectable, will undoubtedly come back to haunt them.
At the end of the day, this is bad news from a customer point of view, but perhaps good news from the point of view from the company and the share-holder. Whoever finds themselves in charge of dealing with the company during this latest bout of inevitible disruption will be armed with the knowledge that they can, as a result of a major union's misguidance, dismiss anyone they see as being 'troublesome' without really having to show much cause.
I applaud my colleagues for standing up for what they (are lead to) believe in, but I also plead with many of them - my friends - to consider that their actions come as the result of misguided leadership.