Count,
As I haven't got anything better to do and it's obviously a slack day in University land for you, I'll reply.
Quite simply there is nothing, absoloutley nothing BALPA can do about IAG setting up BA Express. Not now, not in the future. The Openskies dispute proved, in a court of law, that, by using the Viking Case Study, it was illegal for workers from one company preventing the formation of another company. As the courts put it 'the ability to supress free enterprise by the projected future threats of jobs and earnings for current employees is not sustainable'.
There you go, IAG can, as with Iberia, set up a new airline wherever and whenever they wish.
Obviously we have buried our heads in the sand over this, stuck our fingers in our ears and shouted 'La La La we're not listening we're going on strike over something nebulous and untenable'. Sound familiar?
Why should we not negotiate over something that we have been talking about and discussing for the past 10 years? I.e. The simple fact that SH is not profitable in the current economic and trading environment. Unlike certain other groups we are well aware of the trading conditions, well up to speed with the financial projections of the company and, personally, very understanding of the business plan of the airline and its remit to return both profitability and, if possible, dividends to the shareholders. This is Willie Walshs job and contract. I refuse to be pulled into the BASSA 'it's personal' Quagmire. I've met Willie a couple of times and he is, primarily, the CEO of one of the worlds largest airline groups with the business accumen and responsibilities that go with it. The BASSA dispute was never 'Union Bashing' BASSA were given the chance to negotiate with everyone else. They just chose not to and then used the 'Union Bashing' moniker to cover up their mistakes and inability to protect their members future interests. It was the path of least unionistic resistance with the hope that Unite would have the clout to push through a untenable argument.
So, as with the BASSA refusal to negotiate anything why should we make it easy for IAG to set up BA Express? BASSA had the chance to nip Mixed Fleet in the bud but, as everyone from the Union decried 'oh but Project Columbus has been on paperwork for years' BASSA decided they had no chance and therefore went on a huff IA route. BA were willing to pull Mixed Fleet in return for working concessions. Those concessions didn't arrive therefore Mixed Fleet did. Why should BALPA do the same?
Should we really 'gift' IAG with BMI to transform instantly into BA Express with 30 aircraft and crews? Nope. When BMI is integrated then we have a stronger position to prevent BA from starting up its 'BA Express' as the Scope clause covers the airframes and the crews and they cannot transfer the airframes back.
Unlike with the ill informed BASSA members it is very difficult to get a full company up and running with the adequate training and standards structure that will be required for CAA approval within a short time frame. Therefore the current aircraft orders of 787's, 380's and 777-300's, all of which have been allocated, legally after the Openskies dispute, to BA mainline, cannot be 'gifted' to BA Express.
So to sum up, yes, we are aware that IAG could do what they want with a new company. We are aware that failing to bring BMI into the fold would hasten the formation of said company. We are aware that the company requires cost savings and that the spectre of BA Express won't go away and we are aware that it is the companies responsibility to look at all future options.
We are also aware that BA/BMI combined will leave little/no room at Heathrow for a start up. We are aware that the combined company BA having >50% of the slots at LHR will make for a strengthened bargaining position when the time is right and we are aware that Len McClusky presided over the biggest Union defeat of the 1990's and is probably not the best person to take advice from.
Finally Count, you claim hubris, I would suggest that, by trying to preserve and increase the slots/routes available to BA mainline crews, not just pilots, we are trying to maintain the work into the future for the whole airline and all the CC as well. Unlike BASSA who sold their members down the river by allowing the rapid formation of Mixed Fleet. Hubris? Perhaps from BASSA.
Last edited by Wirbelsturm; 19th January 2012 at 08:50.