Betty Girl
I understand your feelings regarding the dispute ending sooner if WW had not been in charge. WW was brought in by the board to do a job and I think he has well and truly carried out that job.
He had to get our costs down, but some of that ‘costs problem’ related directly to the attitude of employees within BA. The power of unions to bring the airline to a halt is a very unfortunate hangover from the days of being a nationalised industry. In all the years that I have been in BA bassa have been militant bully-boys who have threatened IA if they did not get their way. They have been completely unwilling to move with the times and look where it has now brought them.
WW has now managed to push through new working agreements with ALL groups at BA. Even a few years ago this would have been totally unthinkable. All workgroups, except one, were willing to look at the problems and move with the times. The one group that were completely unwilling to engage have at last been ‘put in their place’ and if the exact wording of the agreement is fulfilled “there will be a single cabin crew Unite branch’ they may have also signed their own demise.
WW moved on to be CEO of the group and KW took over. He may well be a less abrasive character than WW, but he was WWs right-hand man then and he is still his right-hand man on a different level now. A better analogy is the ‘good cop, bad cop’ approach. WW softened bassa up, for KW to come in and get a confession!!!
In financial terms the company have achieved more than they could have imagined: sensible crew complements, the cost saving of MF (which only came in after the initial strike action), putting bassa ‘in their place’ while still having collective bargaining via Untie, a big financial saving in the new facilities agreement and a disruption agreement that is now fit for purpose. The huge number of ‘pointless’ meetings will now be hugely reduced and should hopefully result in better and more fruitful outcomes.
On the more ‘human’ side of the dispute BA now have management control over cabin crew at last – one of the main issues all along! bassa reps will not now be able to abuse their powers / the system by picking up all the plum trips. Since the unhealthy influence of bassa has now reduced I am hoping for a more streamlined operational environment as well. The number of times that bassa have had an ‘unhealthy influence’ over CC management will hopefully reduce and we will not be stuck with situations such as in-flight diversions due duty hours or lengthy delays due to missing cabin crew.
I suspect that the hatred and anger that has been deliberately stirred up will last for quite a while. I am at a loss to explain the lies, hatred etc etc that has come from a certain hateful ‘sacked’ individual and I am at an even bigger loss to understand how one such vile individual has been allowed to lead a decent bunch of people to the edge of a precipice.
Let’s hope that the voices of decent individuals who want to do a good job will now be heard and that the healing process can begin.