British Airways - CC Industrial Relations Mk VI

[oldflyboy]

Update please?

Tiramisu,

Without fanning the rumour fire, did you actually hear Bill Francis say all crew who took action today will be suspended without pay, or was this second hand?

If so, looks like Mr Walsh is playing hardball, which given the attitude from Unite, seems to me be completely justified.

Also my admiration goes out to those who have worked today, and the volunteers both crew and on the ground who are trying to keep BA afloat by supporting those who care enough about BA to go against BASSA. I did volunteer to come back to BA to fly (retired from cabin services 3 years ago), but though gratefull, IFCE only wanted current staff.

Good luck everyone.

[cellstar]

I think that they should have had the volunteers operate on at least one flight each just for the team building positive effect, even if there were enough actual CC available for the flight. In the coming months after this dispute is resolved, it would go a long way to improve the working relationship between flight and cabin crew.

[Eddy]

I think that they should have had the volunteers operate on at least one flight each just for the team building positive effect, even if there were enough actual CC available for the flight. In the coming months after this dispute is resolved, it would go a long way to improve the working relationship between flight and cabin crew.

And of course, if the rumour that Mr. Walsh is going to suspend those who do strike (), the temp crew may well be needed to boost numbers over the next few months - so a fam flight just now would be sensible...

[Juan Tugoh]

Oldflyboy

BA will not pay you if you are on strike. The point here is that BF has allegedly said that the strikers will be suspended without pay. The difference is this - if you are suspended without pay, it will be BA that decide when you come back to work and hence how much money in wages and allowances you will lose. This will prevent strikers from striking for a day then declaring themselves available for work, causing disruption for a fairly small financial penalty.

[malcolmf]

Brian Boyd is saying that there are 20 aircraft at Cardiff and Shannon. Is that a lie as well?

[winstonsmith]

Suspension - Of course this cannot happen in the world of BASSA and their most militant members as it is against the law to punish people for taking industrial action - they are claiming the same thing about staff travel that withdrawing it only from those striking is discriminatory.

[Waterworld]

A/c parked at CWL & SNN

BA has a number of a/c stood down and parked up at outstations because in the current recession there is no viable flying for them. 12 sounds about right.

[malcolmf]

Waterworld
Sorry meant to say 20 at Cardiff and 20 at Shannon.
There are a few parked up at various locations but nothing to do with todays dispute. The implication was that these were as a direct result of the strike.

[Sunshine Express]

Crew have been warned by Bill Francis already.

This is an extract from his recent letter to crew:


""By not coming to work, either because you support a strike or you call in sick, you are contributing to the massive financial damage a strike would cause and we will expect you to help us recover the money we will lose and this means:

You will lose pay. You will not be paid from the point you do not report for duty up to the point we can reasonably allocate you another duty. The withdrawal of pay will include MBT or days off at the end of the duty that you do not report for.""



Whose definition of reasonably? Those who strike will be a long way down the list of crewing department's priorities.
I read that as a warning that one could remain unpaid for the duration of the dispute.

We shall see.........

[Melissa1510]

Working thru the strike

To Get Smart and all your colleagues who are coming to work I would like to say that as one of the volunteer today at CRC I can assure you the support will be there throughout for the rest of the strike time. In fact the places for supporting crew were filled so fast a colleague of mine was asked change and doing re booking instead. These were the positions which went faster than anything else and like me, many felt that the most important role for us volunteers was to support crew willing to work. I had not esitations when I picked my role and I am proud I could help many of you to feel safe and looked after.

Tiramisu - shame on these crew who did not speak to you, ones might not agree with everything people do but the least they should do, as professional individuals, is giving people the respect they deserve and they failed to do so. Please don't be upset, thousands of BA staff (not flying planes) are very proud of our colleagues sticking to what they believe is right for all of us collectively as a company.

[newirishbabe]

Malcolmf

I have no idea of the figures, but if it is 40 in total and 12 are out of service anyway, thats 28 which have been replaced by hired in wetleases.


If on day 1 BA have succeeded in flying as many sectors as seems, surely less people will strike tomorrow rather than more, simply based on those siting on the fence will back the likely winner.....WW.

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by Tiramisu

The only slightly unpleasant bit today was when we arrived at our destination in Europe, the Purser who took over the aircraft from me refused to talk to me while I was trying to give her a handover. The rest of the crew avoided eye contact with me and all my crew making them feel terrible and a little upset.

Again, leaving out any emotion about one's own personal feelings about you going to work, I have to say "HOW DARE our mutual colleagues make you feel like that".

Until those people got back to the UK, they weren't on strike either. Now I now they can legally work when outside of the UK but they drew the long straw and, atleast today, didn't have to decide whether to work or not.

I'd be interested to know what they'll all do tomorrow, over the next couple of days OR had they been rostered to leave the UK today.

Regardless of my own opinions, EVERY PERSON - striking or not - deserves to be treated with respect. This will all be over with in a few months and we'll all have to work together again.

[malcolmf]

I know of 5 747 at CWL and 6 in the desert in California.
This lie (if it is one) should be easy to prove, CWL and SNN are pretty small and it would be hard to hide 20 aircraft there.

[ETOPS]

This lie (if it is one) should be easy to prove, CWL and SNN are pretty small and it would be hard to hide 20 aircraft there.

Easier than that I checked our computer systems and found no - repeat no aircraft at SNN. There are 2 x 747 at CWL on long term storage (the other 6 are at VCV) and 5 777L's under maintenance - it is the main engineering base.

[Timothy Claypole]

Lets clarify a couple of things here.

Firstly, strikers may be suspended by BA but not without pay. That really would be illegal, and if BA locks the strikers out they still have to pay them. Of course the strikers would then have to get by on just the £14000 salary they claim to be struggling on, no allowances.

Secondly, there are not 20 BA jumbos at Cardiff. Try a quarter of that figure, and two of those have been there for months on long term stand down.

As a third and semi-related point, I've heard of some strikers crowing that they still have access to staff travel. Well that, as anyone who's had to work the system will tell you, is because the system only updates once in 24 hours, usually overnight. Any changes to eligibility today will not take effect until the system updates tonight. Let's see if they still have access tomorrow.

[newirishbabe]

I know of 5 747 at CWL and 6 in the desert in California.
This lie (if it is one) should be easy to prove, CWL and SNN are pretty small and it would be hard to hide 20 aircraft there.


I dont know what you are getting at, the facts that matter are the number of staff turning up for work, which seems to be in excess of 60% on the first day

[Airclues]

The law allows a company to 'lock-out' an employee for the duration of the industrial action. In this case, as more strikes have been called, this would be until there is no further threat of industrial action. Any days that the crew are suspended do not count towards the twelve weeks during which dismissal would be deemed to be unfair.

There is nothing in UK law to prevent BA removing staff travel, so long as all strikers are treated equally.

Taking part in industrial action : Directgov - Employment

Dave

[midman]

Originally Posted by Timothy Claypole

Lets clarify a couple of things here.

Firstly, strikers may be suspended by BA but not without pay. That really would be illegal,

Strikers will not be paid by BA for striking days. Perfectly legal, hence the £30/day strike pay offer from Bassa.

Any sign of how that money is to be distributed?

[mra4eng]

If BASSA are paying strikers £30/day for going on strike, but BA are (reportadely) suspending strikers (without pay) for an indefinite period, do you think it will be the expectation that BASSA continue to pay the strikers whilst they are suspended? If it is, then we will see the very swift demise of BASSA. Check mate perhaps.

[winstonsmith]

Here's some info about today LH services which HAVE departed - from what I can remember - numbers indicating number of flights:

3 BOS
3 JFK
2 IAD
2 ORD
1 LAS
1 DFW
1 DEN
1 PHL
1 SEA
1 YVR
1 YYZ

2 DXB
1 AUH/MCT
1 ACC
1 NBO

1 HYD
1 MAA

1 PEK
1 PVG

I am confident there will not be a problem to crew tonights LH flights: 2 CPT, 1 BKK/SYD, 1 HKG, 1 KWI, 1 ABV and 1 BOM.