Ground staff must be so fed up....
From the previous message:
"Yes JTL but isn't it always the front line troops that have to tighten their belts and become more cost efficient whilst the fat cats remain grossly incompetent and get fatter!"
I think that all the front line staff at LHR, not only BA staff, have been abused and overstretched by the Management for too many years, working in very difficult conditions and under high levels of stress.
Working on the ground at such a busy airport has never been easy and I think that this "walkout" could be the first "spark" of a series of further actions by other employees working on the ground: not only BA. Majority of ground agents at LHR are totally fed up with their working conditions!
Is anybody enough brave to statistically assess this feeling among its own staff in a professional and independent manner?
I doubt.
Management should open a fair dialogue with all staff before introducing any major change to basic working conditions, and I do think this has NOT been done in too many cases.
I do not know this specific case so I might be wrong, but I have heard so many stories of bad management on the ground that I would not be surprised at all if this is another case of tightening the belt of the weakest ring of a large corporation, when this same ring is the one that should be motivated and rewarded before anybody else in the same company.
Does the Management know that these people cannot go home at the end of their shift if a flight is delayed, or I have heard of staff working 12 hours without a break and so on: this is reality, and this reality is kicking back with a vengeance. I might be wrong but I do not think staff would have taken such a drastic action just to have a day off: this is a serious issue and it needs to be sorted before it will be well too late for all.
Nothing against BA, this is a general ground staff problem at LHR.
The future is probably a cheap and inefficient ground handling agent for all carriers. This is what low fares are delivering.
Good luck boys and girls.