BA Crew Allowances in Willys Sights?
 

Hi

Some guy over on anothern forum is saying that Willy Walsh is "cutting crew allowances right left and centre".

Is this true, whats happening? Cant see the unions having this.

Cheers

VirginFSM

Dont know how he can be doing it when he doesn't even take over til September!

:) Virgin, Mr Walsh is only 'shadowing' Mr rod at the moment so has no clout. However I have no doubt that we will have a fight on our hands when he does take over.

He has to drive down costs in order to prepare us for T5, and our employee costs are very high. We wait with nervous anticipation.

Of course he will not have encountered union power like ours before, we will simply not roll over and get shafted without a real fight when we feel he should look elswhere within Waterside first....................................................... .....................

Indeed, in terms of productivity , all flying crew are worked to the max.........

I doubt this is mirrored in Waterside where all thats important is
'Macchiato is the new Latte' and
'Thursday is the new Friday' to many.......................

What has been noted is that he plans to first take the axe to Managerial positions in Waterside affecting up to 3500!!!! That will be a nice little bit of cost cutting. I doubt he will do much to the new contract crew as we are paid f-all as it is!
Having worked for him already I think there are other departments more at risk of Willie than the Cabin crew and flight crew!

As I'm led to believe, the way that WW will tackle the excess of CC allowances is rather subtle. New hotel contracts are being drawn up that will include Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, thereby meaning Crew who slip in these 'new contract' hotels will not be able to claim the set allowances as 'BA have already paid for them'...... That will apply to all BA staff who stay at these hotels. The staff over in Waterside have been hit harder than most (...and to be honest, not before time) however, there is very little fat left in the HQ. Flight deck like myself will also have the 'new Contract hotac' to look forward to.... Where's that Draft ..... :)

I have just done my oof day , and am sure they said that Willy Wonker was coming sooner than september. Could be wrong i was half asleep.

Thank you Darkstar for pointing out that Waterside has already been hit harder than most, and that NO staff group within BA will be exempt from Mr Walsh and his axe...

I cannot, however, see a future without further cuts and renegotiating of contracts at Compass, Waterside, the Terminals and in the crew community. This may or may not have a detrimental effect to our business. I think we all need to wake up to this fact.

Now I'm off for a Latte at Compass.....

training ccourses drag on and on and im sure they cost the company a bomb, ive done 3 in 18 months totalling 18 weeks at cranebank...ive had 3 people on my course go for 3 other internal interviews whilst on our course which if succesful means they will be back at craners once this is over and that doesnt make sense.

I remember when Rod first arrived and everyone at compass were shaking in their boots. But not much happened!

I think cuts WILL be made and we all know where money could be saved. Saying that Willie Walsh gained his 'axe weilding' reputation from Aer Lingus, a VERY different beast to BA. He didn't need to be that clever at Aer Lingus to negotiate his new terms as the crews knew the company could go belly up at any given minute. As BA has offically became the 'World most profitable airline' I don't think the same threats will work at BA.

I don't reckon the meal in hotel thingly will work either. Firstly, he'd have to find hotels willing to open their restaurants to provide us with 3 course meals at the obscure hours we arrive and depart. And what restaurant would a crew doing London to Moscow and back eat in?

What I did hear though is that he will try and be sneaky and offer crew on the new contract a higher basic salary in order to try and 'scrap' the expensive old contracts as a majority vote by people on the new contract would ratify it. Don't know if that could happen tho...

I think it will have to be a case of NEGOTIATION if WW wants to get anywhere in BA.

He might want to change CC allowances and bring them in line with EF LGW or something similar.
At the end of the day, on a Moscow there&back (and on all other flights) crews are provided with meals on board, no need of a restaurant. Crews could be paid hourly and meals provided by BA.
NOT that this is a good solution, I agree, but it's something I am sure he will look at.

He might make EF LGW a low-cost fleet (operations are already low-cost here, from crews to aircraft operations) eliminate club on certain routes and have a pay-bar on most flights.:(

These are just rumours that are going around at the moment, don't know myself if that is what is going to happen.

Willie Walsh could do a number of things and Waterside will mainly be affected. For LGW who knows as it is going to change in the near future with Eurofleet LGW crew taking over the Longhaul flying as EF LGW have a lower cost base but do offer the same product as LHR even though up easyjet.
Wait and see...

To change us to an hourly rate or any other method of allowences our contracts would have to be changed which we would have to agree to.

Saying that, if the hourly rate offered was decent I wouldn't complain.....

keeperboy - what planet are you on? Life is rosy and nothing will change. Keep dreaming! The next major change at BA is already slowly being implemented ie LGW 737/777 fleet for Cabin crews which will see an important change for all concerned. LHR EF barely breaks even and employee costs across the airline are sky high, notably within Cabin Services. The new crew card is being introduced for a reason matie.....A lot is already subtly changing, agreement or not.

PS. BA has announced huge profits, but decided not to announce their humungous pension deficit - which will eat away at an important % of profits.

traveller 5 you need to read my post again......the bit where I say "I think cuts WILL be made". We all know there will be cuts. But life will continue to be a hell of a lot rosier at LHR than LGW because LHR is where the money is being made.

Good point, LHR shorthaul barely breaks even on it's own. But when around 60% of passengers on those short haul flights are transiting to BA longhaul flights where do you think LHR longhaul would be without it?

Also, you have to look at how the fares are distributed. For example, if someone buys a Milan-JFK ticket via LHR the entire ticket value is off set to the longhaul profit centre even though that passenger would have to use a short-haul flight Milan-London-Milan.

What is happening at LGW or with crewcard has no bearing on what will happen with our conditions at LHR. LGW only has two aircraft types so it makes sense for everyone to be on both. At LHR we have 5 types.

Was chatting to some CC whilst nightstopping EWR and the CSD was convinced that LHR SH would be turned into a Lo-co if BMI's Lo-Co plan was actually put into place out of LHR. Pay bars and pay for meals are already being sounded out, as are certain 'all cattle class' into Europe!! I can't really see whats left to strip out of Waterside, I went to the dentist and I didn't see that many people having coffee, although it was after 16.00! No, the cuts sadly will be with the CC and us. The big target I'm sure will be sickness, I was told that with the May Bank Holiday CC Scheduling have to ramp up STBY crew simply due to a huge spike in casual sickness ....unless the weather is bad! Remember, you're dumping on your colleagues and one day that STBY crew could be you! :E

Yes, but we chose to join BA over the guys in orange because we knew the conditions were very good there. We wanted lots of night stops, we wanted to be paid well for what we did. Why do people always have a go at us for that? Everybody in any job or at any airline want to get as much as they possibly can! We've got used to the money we're paid and used to the life style it enables us to live. If Willy changes our conditions too much I would think he will loose a lot of crew.

The guy doesn't even start til September so let's wait and see. One thing for sure though, he ain't gonna want any industrial action at lhr on his hands.

My lodger who is on LHR SH flew with one of the BASSA guys yesterday and apparently it is being negotiated for the eurofleet cabin crew to take over all the 767 long haul flying. Guess that could save BA some dosh! And the crew are welcome to TLV ann ACC! :p

Keeperboy, go take your apron off, go out take deep breaths of fresh air. What makes you and your bunch of sky maids in need of a three course meal.
Get a life!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You and your bunch of skymaids have been paid far too much for far too long.
Adios.

Sevenforeseven...Cheers for the offer of going out to take some breaths of fresh air, but im paid enough by BA to hire someone else to do it for me. :p