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British Airways - CC Industrial Relations Mk VI

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Old 18th Feb 2010, 08:16
  #641 (permalink)  
 
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Judgment

Do keep up Basil

You´re the fourth person posting this.
First post #620

f40


Story of my life - sounds like my old RAF flying instructor

Last edited by Basil; 18th Feb 2010 at 09:29.
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 08:56
  #642 (permalink)  
 
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Trust

So, following my request yesterday, there are no examples of BA lying to it's staff, just a concern that the faces have changed a number of times. There have been three heads of IFS/IFCE in around the last 10 years from memory (Joy Hordern, Simon Talling Smith and now Bill Francis). That's about normal in a large corporate business.

We all know that BASSA lie on a very regular basis.
Here's a few examples just in case you've forgotten...

PCCC set up claims
Actual value of proposed BASSA savings
References to pilot cost savings
Behaviour during the 2007 pensions debate
Press release about low take up of volunteer crew positions
....and there are many many more!

Why do crew insist on still believing this bunch when there is crystal clear evidence they are not to be trusted, whilst at the same time the company get slated for actually acting honourably and honestly????
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 09:24
  #643 (permalink)  
 
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BASSA have woken up again

Another missive from BASSA/UNITE (my comments in italics):

THE BALLOT - YOUR FINAL CHANCE

The ballot closes at the end of the week. We know some of you have still not
voted, and are delaying the return of your form because of two main
reasons.

The first reason seems to be that you are awaiting the result of UNITE's court case against BA. On this we can only reiterate what we have already said. The High Court case is about the contractual nature of crew complements, not about the breaching of your agreements and the current impositions. (So the strike is to be about what then?)

It is possible a judgement will not have even been made before our ballot
closes, and under points of law appeals could be lodged even when a
decision is made. So for those who think a UNITE victory means BA will be
rushing to put the crew back on the aircraft, and you no longer need to
worry about putting an x in the box, it's a nice thought, but not likely
to happen. (At last, some realism).

The second reason is fear. During our last ballot BA used quite a gentle
approach. Mr. Francis spent weeks continually writing to crew, appearing
on forums, in the CRC, etc, etc, to convince crew that your future, both
career and financially, was safe with him, and why should you want to go
into dispute. Well that plan rather backfired, with only 7% believing
him. So this time round it's the nasty style. You will have seen our
recent article where we have illustrated how BA have taken bullying and
harassment to new levels against your reps and crew. Macho management is
running riot. (Are these people anti-testosterone or something? They seem hung up on "machismo") Crew are being routinely suspended just for having a counter view (No they are not, you liars), and in the CRC and even on the aircraft, there is a " looking over
your shoulder " mentality that never used to exist.

And there is the nub! If this style of aggressive management works, and a
much lower yes vote, and/or a much lower return of the ballot, will
convince them it has, then to coin a phrase: "you ain't seen nothing
yet!". Just as a playground bully gets his way by threats and
harassment, then his actions become worse as he demands more and
more. (BASSA would know, wouldn't they, as their actions are mostly those of petulant schoolchildren).

Fortunately you have a weapon to fight back with. Despite the haranguing
we have taken in the press (you mean your own public relations disaster), despite crew salary details being leaked (leaked from a publicly available website?), despite the professional job we do being demeaned (you do a professional job of being demeaned?!) and being told someone can be trained in 3 days to do it (who by?), despite BA encouraging other staff to vilify us (do they need to?), and despite all of the threats, and suspensions crew are suffering, you have a legitimate and legal way of standing up to the bully. But you only have a week left, and with what we face you simply can not afford to sit on the fence.

(Do I get the impression that the ballot response, and the percentage of yes votes doesn't match Malone's wishes?)

Your Senior Representatives and Full Time Officers continue to meet British Airways this week at the TUC in London.

When we have news that we can share with you, we will provide a further update.

JOINT UNION MEETING AT KEMPTON PARK RACECOURSE - 25th February 2010

There will now be a joint members meeting at Kempon Park Racecourse at 11:00am for both branches of the Unite Union. This will be to discuss the ballot result and the way forward, along with any information that we may have following the discussions with BA.
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 09:31
  #644 (permalink)  
 
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Ballot result

I assumed(never assume I know) that as the ballot is being conducted by an independant company, neither side knows ,as this stage, how the voting is going.
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 10:39
  #645 (permalink)  
 
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I had enough of all this. After 15 years being a member of BASSA I have today officially withdraw my membership. I think I am better off without a union.

I can make my own judgement and decide what is better for me
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 10:46
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I assumed(never assume I know) that as the ballot is being conducted by an independant company, neither side knows ,as this stage, how the voting is going.
I'm sure they have ways of "straw polling" their membership but....

I had enough of all this. After 15 years being a member of BASSA I have today officially withdraw my membership. I think I am better off without a union.
Perhaps this might explain it.
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 10:50
  #647 (permalink)  
 
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I think I am better off without a union.
That, for me, is the saddest aspect of this dispute and the way that BASSA have operated.

Your statement should read that you would be better of without THIS union.

Unions in and of themselves are a good thing, representation of an employee group is important. Whilst BA don’t appear in my radar is a particularly bad management body some employers are, some are very poor indeed.

BASSA’s damage to the perception of unions generally is unforgivable.
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 10:57
  #648 (permalink)  
 
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Another Unite strike averted

Unite not doing too well in Court lately with regard to strike action

From the Guardian:

A high court judge has blocked a strike by workers at one of Britain's busiest ports, as British Airways cabin crew brace themselves for a legal challenge to next week's strike ballot result.

Staff at Milford Haven Port Authority, in Pembrokeshire, west Wales, became the latest victims of the 1992 Trade Union Act when a two-day strike due to start tomorrow was injuncted. The ruling against the Unite trade union echoed a legal block brought against the same union over a planned 12-day Christmas strike by BA cabin crew in December last year. Disgruntled air stewards are holding a second ballot which closes on Monday and BA is braced for a yes vote, with some Unite members pushing for walkout lasting at least 12 days.

A Unite official said the high court was now actively intervening in trade union disputes. "The fundamental issue here is the high court intervening yet again, as they did in the BA cabin crew dispute, to undermine our members' democratic decision to take industrial action," said Brendan Gold, Unite's national secretary for docks and waterways. "It is hugely frustrating going through the correct legal procedures to call this action then to have the courts intervene to block it."

However, while both court rulings referred to the 1992 act, the Milford Haven injunction represents a temporary brake on industrial action that could still go ahead next week. Unlike the BA case, the Milford Haven strike vote, over a pensions dispute, has not been deemed unlawful. Instead, Mr Justice Sweeney found that notices of industrial action by 50 employees at Milford Haven did not comply with the act, which demands stringent accuracy when notifying employers of walkouts. Unite said that it will stage a 12-hour walkout at the Britain's sixth largest port next week, in line with the Trade Union Act which requires giving seven days notice before striking.

In the case of the BA cabin crew, the ballot was ruled unlawful in its entirety, forcing the union to restage the ballot. Unite fell foul of the act last year when it balloted about 800 cabin crew who subsequently took voluntary redundancy. The act requires unions to give the company accurate voting information, including the number of voters and where they work in the company.

Officials at Unite and its cabin crew branch, Bassa, have combed through membership details of more than 12,000 cabin crew to eradicate data glitches but it is understood that the union has received several legal letters from BA about the new ballot since January.

The RMT, the rail industry's largest trade union, said industrial action at train operators London Midland, Virgin Trains, East Coast and London Underground had been delayed by challenges under the 1992 Act. "The arsenal of legal weapons ranged against the workforce by bosses seeking to wreck industrial action is growing by the day," said Bob Crow, RMT general secretary.

The number of injunctions under the act has nearly trebled over the past year after a case in 2008 saw Metrobus, a London bus operator, win a case claiming that a strike ballot was unlawful due to polling irregularities. BA lawyers able to structure their case on similar principles secured an injunction that overturned a 92% majority on an 80% turnout.

Talks between BA and Unite and Bassa officials are continuing. However, a yes vote on Monday could see a strike begin from 1 March although Unite has ruled out taking industrial action over Easter. The high court is also due to rule imminently on a legal case brought by Unite in which the union is arguing that cuts to staffing levels on all BA flights breach contractual law.
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 10:58
  #649 (permalink)  
 
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I have a wife and family, my wife is also in employment. Dogs, cats and horses. I have obligations outside of BA. For the majority of the time I need a fixed roster, my wife, childcare and animals are all held hostage to that need. nothing is organised or finalised until I have my roster. Nobody is bitter about that, we just get on with it. Occassionally matters do not go to plan, such as tech aircraft and my family's life is thrown into confusion. They get on and get over it and mostly because it happens rarely.

The only part of the ORP which does not work for me is the criteria for implementation. I believe that there must be agreement that it is absolutely necessary before going ahead. The rest I'm able to cope with quite easily.

Lies and mistrust. I was BA regional crew. I shared a crew room with former BRAL and Brymon crew, who worked under there own old agreements. I witnessed these crew coming in from a double trip to find that they were now required to go elsewhere and nightstop or remain in the crew room on standby. I witnessed the tears and tantrums, the argumentative phone calls to loved ones and home. I'm not going there, stability was one reason I joined BA and not any other regional carrier. I also witnessed a senior crew member being comforted by a manager after a life jarring moment. The door adjacent to her crew seat onboard a Dash 8 had unlocked shortly after take off, exposing a several inch view of Stockport passing beneath her feet. The matter was dealt with expediently and professionally and the aircraft made a rapid return to base. Shock set in and the managers comforting began, and when the obligitory time was over the manager announced that there was no-one else available and that the cabin crew member would have to continue her trip.

Now I know that the professionals on here will no doubt point out that matters were alot safer that it appeared and there was no real danger, but that takes away the fear an non-pilot has when suddenly there is a rush of air and a large hole at your feet.

My final points about BA regional. 'The regions are too important to BA' 'Rumours about regional closing are simply not true' ' The MAN-JFK route is too important to BA to lose' 'The MAN-JFK route makes too much money to stop.' What happened? Shortly after I was unnecessarily promoted the announcement came of closure. Even middle management were misguided by the leadership. And as for the remains of the regions, BAconnect, 'You have two years to make this company work profitably' despite the hard work and determination of all the staff it was sold off well before the two year deadline.

And I should trust in BA leadership. I'll do what I need to help BA but I want a watertight contract first.
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 11:25
  #650 (permalink)  
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Crew are being routinely suspended just for having a counter view
Are BASSA actually looking to get taken to court? It would appear so with these continuously libellous comments.

"It is hugely frustrating going through the correct legal procedures to call this action then to have the courts intervene to block it."
Of course it is hardly a surprise when Unite come out with nonsense like this. If you had followed the correct legal procedures, then the courts wouldn't intervene, would they?
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 12:47
  #651 (permalink)  
 
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PC767,

If the job, in any of it's guises, doesn't suit your life style then no one is forcing you to stay there. The company does not owe you the lifestyle that you want.

Cloud cuckoo land indeed!
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 12:49
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PC767,
I need a fixed roster, my wife, childcare and animals are all held hostage to that need.
With respect, may I suggest that your requirements are incompatible with your chosen profession.
Nothing personal; I've met a few pilots who thought their lifestyle was more important than the company which paid for it.
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 12:59
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Wrong answer DC3. The job does suit me in many ways, the implication is that without balance it will not.

I do not want double nights here and extra payments there, what I want from the ORP is a checking mechanism to ensure that it is not used to cover my own departments ineptitute, nor as a tool to ensure further employment costs can be cut by not having adequate crew to run the operation. Success comes from effective partnerships. The current situation is clearly not effective, but neither will be replacing the current Bassa leadership's intransigence with the current BA leadership's.
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 12:59
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DC3 and Basil, what part of
Originally Posted by PC767
Nobody is bitter about that, we just get on with it. Occassionally matters do not go to plan, such as tech aircraft and my family's life is thrown into confusion. They get on and get over it and mostly because it happens rarely.
did you not understand?

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Old 18th Feb 2010, 13:03
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No you cannot Basil because it isn't.

However it could soon be and all I desire is a compromise which benefits BA's operation and has less impact upon it's staff.

I'm looking for the middle ground, which to be honest can neither be found here nor on Bassa's web forum. I will still make my point on both sites though.
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 13:16
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Also Basil, your quote from my post regretably missed the start of the sentence.

'For the majority of the time.......'
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 14:20
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Ooh is it true ottergirl that the talks at ACAS are going well? If so that is fantabulous news! Especially as it is over New Fleet absorbtion and protection for us existing crew - which are the biggest areas. Let's hope for a settlement in the next couple of weeks, before a strike can start and inflict damage on the company!

Also, some of you please give PC767 a break. I think having fixed rosters as we do now in times of NO DISRUPTION is perfectly reasonable! If we didn't have some fixed protection (at least in days off) we all know that it would be ''you know your days off tomorrow do you mind doing a double CDG/AMS'' - but I was going on holiday ''well.... you will have to cancel as there is noone left to crew the flights''. I am all for flexibility and realise many of our agreements are very restrictive, (and I am against BASSA rhetoric before anyone starts) however to just start changing peoples days off when they may have things planned, may have families etc is just not on. Obviously when there is disruption I fully agree that there should be some flexibility to keep the operation running. However, if manpower gets their numbers right (including numbers on SBY) then there should be no need to be just changing trips and days off at the drop of a hat.

Before you say that I am in the wrong job. Hang on - I am fine and know I am expected to work weekends, bank holidays, Christmas, New Year, birthdays, Easter etc etc. I know that I am expected to get up at 3am or work until 11pm (or later in delays ) I am fully aware of the flexibility and non-routine required in the job and I will say that it actually suits my lifestyle well and I like non-routine. However that doesn't mean that I want to make plans for days off (ie. have a life!) and then have them changed all the time. Even if trips were flexibile and non-fixed I could live with that, however fixed days off I think are important and reasonable in times of no disruption. Or, if that is too difficult have a certain number of fixed days off per month, which we could bid for, the rest are flexibile. Maybe that would be a suitable compromise?

About the facebook suspensions; I would hate to see anyone lose their jobs (unless they were truly bullies) however to say BA are a bullying employer is OTT seeing as obviously they were spreading info that could lead to bullying and harassment of volunteers by various media. I know some would say ''well the volunteers should know that this was coming, if they didn't want to be named and shamed then they shouldn't have volunteered.'' Well in my opinion, they have every right to volunteer just as we have a right to strike. Whatever you choose is not right or wrong. These volunteers, some people say are undermining are jobs, some might be doing it for that, however some may just be very scared of BA going bust and still want a job. Think of it that way. For them to be harassed and bullied by people is wrong. I have voted No and if a strike is called am willing to work (as are many here) and I for one do not want my name bandied around, just because I don't believe in the ''cause''. I am not forced to strike, even if I am in Unite! So really, people should think before posting this on facebook etc.... I feel for them in some ways, some of them may not be guilty etc.... but please don't say BA are bullying!

Anyway, rant over!
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 14:30
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May I just ask when exactly the result of the current ballot will be made public?
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 15:01
  #659 (permalink)  
 
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Ballot result

The ballot result will be announced on Monday 22nd Feb.
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Old 18th Feb 2010, 15:33
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I have always felt that it is important to try and think WHY your opponent is thinking the way they are!

This is obviously something that bassa reps did not do, or it appears, even cared about! They have behaved like selfish greedy bankers throughout this whole affair.

As a pilot I ‘enjoy’ having a roster that I can plan my life around. In all my time in the company I have only been ‘drafted’ once. However, I accept as part of my employment that there may be times that I have to work outside my rostered work. Disruption happens very infrequently and like all my colleagues we are obliged to operate to scheme, not industrial, during disruption.

Reading some of the posts here I can understand the thoughts of you who ‘do not trust’ BA! However, I would like to ask is this due to personal experience or what you have heard from other sources and/or bassa. As has been mentioned already by many, many posters – bassa have told some really dreadful and blatant lies.

I am sure that BA have not always told ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’, but sometimes the plan that is passed to employees can change due to forces outside the control of the employer. I have had only one instance of a manager downright lying to me. In every other instance I have been treated fairly and honestly.

So much of the present situation has been deliberately escalated by some huge exaggeration from bassa. Such blatant exaggeration is unhelpful in enabling cabin crew to make informed decisions, but some of the garbage spouted by bassa amounts to complete blatant lies. That is not acceptable and no matter the outcome of this debacle I certainly hope that the rank and file membership of bassa will be shown a catalogue of these lies.

The VAST majority of cabin crew in BA are great and deserve a MUCH better level of honest representation than they have received!
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