BA CC industrial relations (current airline staff only)

[Wirbelsturm]

MFCREW,

A little reasoning if I may and the moderators allow as it talks both about FC and CC.

Sadly it seems that Pilots have become the 'easy' target for the BASSA and CF forums as the purveyours of all evil and those directly responsble for prolonging the BASSA action and causing their ultimate demise.

I for one have not seen the 'pure hatred' and the 'awful conditions' you seem to portray over the past year. Please accept that, if they exist, then it is in a minute section of the thousands of flights a year conducted by BA and thus, statistically, you could end up wth having people you just don't like on the crew irrespective of their Unionistic views.

Many, many, many of us from the other side of the door attended exhaustive economic briefings held both by BA (Keith Williams, not Willie Walsh), our Association and Price Waterhouse Coopers as to the state of the economy, the company, the industry and the country prior to making any decision on our cost savings obligations. At the same time actions were going on over FTL changes within EASA (Which affect all flying crews), Holiday pay (Including CC) and negotiations with the Inland Revenue over down route tax burdens (On which BASSA were briefed but failed to act). After gathering all of that information together there were some members who felt that it was right at the time to protect a fragile operating position and cost base from ill thought out, reactive, cognitive IA from BASSA. Not all who were VCC were Union members, many just decided that the BASSA action was, at the time, inappropriate.

BASSA, at the time, concentrated, rightly or wrongly, on minimising compulsory redundancies. The concentrated (argued) on this for so long and so hard that they failed to achieve headway on anything else. They refused to look at the confidential business documents, refused to believe the PwC independant analysis, refused to believe what the other Unions were advising them and, thus, ended up failing to meet their cost savings obligations and achieved imposition. Was this really adequate representation?

Now the dispute has entered a long winded drawn out phase and, as usual, BASSA lashes out against those who work in the aircraft with you. Unfairly. There is no hatred just astonishment at how badly BASSA has represented its members. Amazement at how the BASSA board think that they can be the only ones who deserve to operate with the same conditions set down in the 1980's and refuse any change.

I have found that the mood over VCC has subtely changed over the past year. We are no longer in a dangerous position financially and thus many FC feel that VCC would be inappropriate given the cirrent circumstances. Sadly all this achieves is making the lies and vitriol from BASSA all the more disproportionate.