RIP !

With the way HV wrote/words they used, I would be very surprised if it wasn't Duncan Holley - I am sure he will be back in another guise ...

In some ways it's a shame that DH has been banned. Although the posts were all barking mad, it was educational to see some of the thought processes that BASSAmentalists are using to justify their actions.

I see from elsewhere that BA met Unite at ACAS yesterday.

Was BASSA even aware this was happening?

According to an earlier post, BASSA was barred by TW from attending the meeting. Interesting!

I agree. I left the union some months ago and it was because they were no longer representing my interests. So what's the point in funding an organisation with your subs, if that's the case. The only way I can tell Unite that I'm unhappy with the BASSA reps and uncomfortable with DH's destructive presence is by resigning after a long membership. Why would any organisation put someone with such an obvious axe to grind in the influential position he's in? Bizarre, to say the least.

I'll be happy to rejoin one of the unions as I want proper representation during negotiations with the company. By a mass exodus of the unions, it would hopefully force them to sort things out quickly and not linger on standing for a minority of their membership.

And just in case Duncan is reading this, it's typical that you didn't address one single point I made, but just asked me about new contracts hitting my doormat. I don't put my faith in BF and WW, but they're doing a better job of looking after me than my union did. And, by the way, what would have been the point in this offer at all? The company would just have sent me the new contract now, if that was their intention. They would have had nothing to lose. The strikes failed, the new fleet is a reality, staff travel still isn't reinstated, and some of our brave reps are still jobless. And apart from that, I'm now non-unionised, so would have little comeback whatever they offered me. I'm happy at the current outcome, if I don't dwell on the enormous BASSA **** ups, and hope TW forces a resolution on those BASSA reps too busy on holiday to even get together to confirm their next strategy.

Interesting article
Summer strikes and autumn dole queues - Telegraph

shame the author finishes with an old BA slogan though.

How wrong they are! Our revenues are very much under threat from a strike, albeit a strike by workers of another company.

However, I suspect we'd be able to sue BAA for our losses?

..Oh the irony. Boyd and his cronies tub thumping again wrt to their hard pressed BAA members. The BAA workers, under the UNITE umbrella of anachronism, are miffed at a 'pathetic' pay offer and also missing out on a £450 bonus because they failed to achieve their 'targets' by 3%.

They missed their 'targets' due in no uncertain terms to a sodding great natural event - the volcano, Oh, and industrial action by another group of workers, all of whom come under the umbrella of....wait for it......UNITE. You could not make this up.

And when you analyse the votes for a strike, just over 2260 'members' out of 6000+ balloted are about to hold the country to ransom in amongst the most difficult trading environs - ever. Is that a mandate? Brian. Meanwhile the UNITE Leadership team, continue feathering their nests, attending to their holidays now, before any disruption. Where is McCluckle, Woodley, Simpson - and mores to the point - what have they to say about Boyd's performance ovet the BA debacle. I remeber him on SKY giving assurances that Staff travel will be returned - unconditionally. Really Brian?.

The telegraph also posted this
"BA advertises itself as the world's favourite airline"
How many years since BA used that ?
I thought that was now Ryanairs claim to fame

Does anything ever change?
 

Another airline Union Rep wanting to spend all his time on Union duties ..... only this was at BEA, back in 1955!

B.E.A. CHIEF GETS TOUGH - British Pathe

I wonder how his tomatoes did that year? :)

Outstanding find!

I particularly enjoyed : "Mr Peters, who denies he is a communist....."

Not much by way of concrete information there. Did you fill out a complaint online?

Got a letter today acknowledging my acceptance of the offer made direct. It states that 1100 crew have accepted the offer on their own behalf; I am quite surprised by how low that is. Less than ten percent are either non-union or think the deal will get better!

I was expecting at least double that number to have accepted. Perhaps the company, to ensure everything is belt and braces, has verified that each crew member was not a member of the union on the date the offer was made before allowing acceptance?

I don't think it strengthens BASSA's position as they are still backed into a corner, but reaching a settlement is going to be (more of) a long hard slog.

LD
 

Bassa aren't even in this dispute anymore - Unite have made it clear over the window blinds issue and not calling a new strike ballot thats its over....done....fin

The very very sad part of this is that no Bassa reps seems to have actually gone on strike during the strike periods - relying instead on their members to take the pain.....the reps seem to still have staff travel and not lost any money....

If I was in Bassa I'd be wanting lynchings....lynch those CSD reps that only were out for themselves.....the 33 and 50% ers

If your still in Bassas (dur!) then force your view and get a change in management....Duncan is calling a meeting at Sandown in Sept so he can call a show of hands to keep him in a job, he knows you'll be intimidated not to show your hand so its his only chance to keep taking your subs - so insist on a secret ballott....

BAA Strike Off
 

Well done to all the people involved in the negotiations on coming to a settlement that suits both parties. See how easy it is when BASSA is out of the picture?

Did anyone notice the UNITE rep was Brendan Gold who used to be involved with our negotiations until DH managed to turn the membership against him along with our previous BASSA chairman.

I feel that last nights press conference could so easily have been our CEO standing their with Mr Gold successfully claiming that they had struck a fair deal for their staff that the company could also afford! Instead of the mess BASSA have created.

DH and LM have a lot to answer for! :mad:

BASSA - "We're right behind you!"

How did the reps manage to avoid striking if the company refused derostering?

Much as I dislike BASSA, the reps DID all go on strike, many went sick for trips just before the strike then called in fit to be able to go on strike.
Otherwise some would have been on days off.

Lizanne herself was sick for SEP on her return to work course.

Has she ever been fit?;)

plodding along,
I'm sure you are right that most probably did strike but I do know that for the first phase of strikes some union reps phoned in sick. Bill Francis told a group of us in the CRC, on day four of the first phase, that he was shocked that Union reps had encouraged crew to strike but that some of them had not striked but called in sick themselves.

Take note BASSA
 

With reference to the BAA situ-

That's the mature way to 'negotiate'. Look the word up in the dictionary. Just above it, you'll observe 'negligible'. Another apt word should you continue your belligerence and IA.

It will be interesting to see what final percentage rise they settled on.
Not sure how UNITE can publically sell settling for say 2.5% with BAA staff yet still not recommending the BA deal with a 3% rise for two years running.

Publically it will look like greed.

BAA deal with Unite
 

2% and £500 bonus for BAA staff.
BASSA CSD/PSR reps. would not accept that, they get £700 every time they do a WW L/R trip!

Another Mistake?
 

Been away from here for a few weeks, but interestingly a couple of weeks ago I got a letter from Unite stating that ' as I had not been a member for over 6 months, I was now excluded from the union'. However I only resigned a few weeks ago. Just a coincidence perhaps but I most certainly did not resign way back in January. If I had done, how come I received a ballot paper in the recent poll re BA offer and polls for the proposed strikes. The plot just thickens!

On a different note I would love to be a fly on the wall at the meeting on the 6th Sept. Then again if I'm off I might just turn up and watch the proceedings from the back, after all there are no checks on whether you are a member (current or not) when you go along are there. Wonder if anyone brave enough to question DH on anything different rather than his tomatoes, drinking habits or diet!

The Walsh Factor
 

I am very disappointed that UNITE are able to clinch a deal with the BAA but not with BA.

Both the BAA and BT avoided strikes by negotiating with the unions, but Mr Walsh just trains up people to go to war. £200 million and still deadlock with BASSA. Could it be that Walsh is the problem?

Why have you signed the deal Ottergirl? I thought it was terrible. Only 1100 went for it, not surprising really. What will you do if BASSA get a better deal?

BA also reached agreement with Unite on the pensions deficit and ground staff working practices.

Could it be that BASSA is the problem?

UNITE / the BAA staff have just signed a deal that is worse than the current offer from BA to their cabin crew.

If it was good enough for them, why is the better deal not good enough for BASSA / CC? This proves that it is not the BA CEO that is the problem, but the wayward branch of UNITE.

Why can't you see this?

LD

If you are disappointed that Unite reached an agreement with everyone but BA, then have a look what the others agreed on. And go and talk to Unite and ask them to agree as well to what we are given. We accepted this offer (although better offers have been put on the table and got rejected from Bassa without you even having a chance to see them) because it is simply the last offer. You see, some of us believe our employer and not a "ghost" Union... I wonder who they will have to represent in 6 months time when all the members are away...or who will represent any existing members!

And a final question... Why when we get rid of a troll, another one appears?

Welcome back HV!!!

I read that wen Willie Walsh was a union negotiator he was quoted as saying that "you get nowhere in negotiations by being reasonable".

Perhaps his unreasonable behaviour is the real reason why other companies can negotiate a deal without inconveniencing customers and causing the company to lose hundreds of millions in strike costs?

Neither BT or the BAA knowing that a strike was possible, spent millions training strike breaking staff and then provoking a strike seemingly. It is madness to spend so much money when BA is suppposed to be hard up. What is the point of cost cutting if you spend so much achieving it?

Another CEO would not have bgot BA into such a mess.

What is our CEo going to do with all the people, some flown in from the USA, to keep them in recency? If there is no strike consequently, will Walsh take responsibility for his decision to train up all these other staff and the associated costs?

So why has unreasonable Willie managed to negotiate a deal with every other trade union except BASSA Hector?

Lady BA BA. Sweetie, Hun,...think long term, darling. :)

Mr Walsh has managed to cut out a tremendous amount of cost - more than he could have dreamed of this time last year - by imposition, and the early introduction of MF. And I'll tell you summat else - there could be whole lot more savings to be had if he really was to go nuclear. Current CC have a lot to be grateful for in his magnanimity, given BASSA's witlessness (IMHO)....so far. I hope BASSA do not think there is still mileage to be had.

As for forward bookings? - God only knows how that's going to pan out.

Cost cutting is easy. Not ruining your company in the process is a bit harder.

Ahem, point of order, it's not 'his' (your) 'our' company.

However, there is an awful lot of folk out on the front line trying their butts off to lift the reputation of BA out of the wreckage caused by the BASSA brigade. IMHO of course.

Yes, cost cutting is difficult, yet the alchemist Walsh has succeeded in cutting costs from ground staff, engineers, management, pilots, suppliers and landlords and reached a pensions settlement without industrial unrest. Of course everybody knew that BASSA would cause trouble as they are utterly resistant to efficiencies (4hr turnaround on EF anyone?) so his performance measure there has been on whether he can beat BASSA. And he has done so. His reward is promotion to CEO of IAG.

Lady BA BA
 

No, BASSA is the problem. How long do you negotiate for? One year, two three?
And how do you negotiate with a branch like BASSA with their fingers in their ears constantly.
Why is it only BASSA that will not play ball? The rest of us have done our bit and continue to do so. Don't under estimate the strength of feeling here. Hence, the VCC's.
Yes, like the board, the city, the staff and public, we are on Willie's side on this issue.

Go tell BASSA!!

There was a post by "Lady BA BA" that referred to the approx 1100 non union members that have signed up to their existing terms and conditions (with some safeguards) offered by Bill Francis. Lady BA BA went on to note that he/she would agree with that figure as he/she estimated that 70/80% of the crew that he/she flew with were strikers. The post has subsequently been removed.

In my humble experience, when you meet a crew for the first time, 100% are strikers. During the course of the flight and as a result of general chat it appears that the 100% starts to erode a little until at the end of the trip when the non-strikers get to know of each other, the probable percentasge of crew members who took industrial action is more like 35-40%.

Anybody else had that experience?

The 1100 crew members that have just signed up to the very good safety net by virtue of the fact that they were not BASSA members on 25th Jun 2010 must feel they have done the right thing. How many more would perhaps like to get their signature on a document that promises a continuation of their existing terms and conditions.

If this goes to the 90 day scenario, just curious what the content of the document that is issued will contain. In short, it could contain absolutely anything, even an invitation to join Mixed Fleet, take it or leave it.

Many will respond with points of view that strenuously deny this, but this is actually where we are at the moment and it is where BASSA have placed us.

One final thing......
 

Lady BA BA wrote:

The answer is that the 1100 will get the improved terms...it actually states that in the document...but it is surely unlikely that BASSA will do better.

Perhaps someone will shout out what the downside is for the 1100 who have put their signature to a document that ensures their current terms and conditions......

Quiet isn't it!

How many years ago did he say that? Who hasn't said things years ago that they wouldn't now?

Look at WW's track record at BA. Lots of significant changes agreed with the unions without all hell breaking loose.

Getting only 1100 crew to sign up is hardly a great victory. They are irrelevant anyway, as most onloy have a few years left in the company and don't care about the future. It just shows the working of a mind that can even think such an action is worthwhile, dividing the workforce further and making industrial relations more difficult to heal in the future.

Quite honestly he is a pathetic little man that views point scoring as more important than settling a costly dispute that he alone has escalated by his rhetoric and actions. Hundreds of millions down the drain, even more spent training strike breakers that may not be needed and untold damage to the brand. Other CEO's must look at Willie Walsh and wince. Why didn't Ian Livingstone CEO of BT take on the CWU and bust the union out of the company? Why have the BAA given in so easily to UNITE?

The reason why this dispute has not been settled is because of the vindictive nature Walsh has adopted in punishing strikers. Both the BAA and BT disputes were over PAY RISES. BA crew just want a fair deal that is not disproportionate to other departments in the company.

Actually I think most departments would kill to get the deal the crew are getting. Payrise a load of guarantees, what planet do you live on...Nice to have you back DH