Oh well...............

S.S.D.Y.

Same Sh*t; Different Year.

Well there is a chaos video (a few pages back there is a link) that was used by a few American cabin crew particularly Alaskan airlines, so maybe that is what he is thinking of but that would not be legal in the uk.

As they have to provide dates for strikes over here, all BA have to do is have VCC on standby in the CRC and hotel near by, to be able to cover any action.

Yes, but there is still disruption as BA have to make the contingencies.
But, if no-one actually strikes - there is no question of 90 notice, or sackings or legal comeback.

Call a strike - but only the would-be strikers KNOW that it isn't.
It's not illegal to turn-up for work when a strike is called.
Happened quite a lot during the last rounds I recall. Ironic eh?

90 days notice has nothing to do with industrial action (its a means of contract change, nothing more) so no difference there.

Secondly if no industrial action has actually been taken (not just called, taken) within 28 days the ballot is rendered invalid. So it doesnt get rid of the sacking/legal problem either.

Well apparently they only have to persuade a judge that there is no prospect of the union ever coming to agreement to be able to use 90 days, I was informed by a poster the other day.

So they could still do that but I hope not, they really are idiots because if some of the get the sack or leave because they don't want to sign the contract if they use 90 says, they just make Mixed Fleet bigger, faster.

support falling away
 

Unite claim 7000 crew went on strike during the earlier dispute.
Now only 5751 are interested in Industrial Action.

That makes a fall of 18% before any strike even begins. It shows the dangers of talking up your strike numbers, but forward thinking is not a skill BASSA/UNITE have much of

This dispute is rapidly drifting away from Unite/BASSA

ABAC

Actually the SOSR 90 day thing is even simpler than persuading the judge that there is no chance of achieving a settlement. All that BA have to do is persuade the judge that they believe there is no chance of achieving a settlement. This is the legal test - there has to be a genuinely held belief, not that that belief is valid.

That said I remain unconvinced BA would do this, I think they will just ignore the strike and take sanctions like ST removal. The last strike was ineffectual and the tactics that worked last time are likely to be used again.

Interestingly they have not yet threatened Staff travel removal but they have made it clear that anyone that strikes this time will not get a bonus if one is paid out.

Surely with just over 40% of the entire workforce willing to strike Unite will have to think twice whether it is worth the risk to call a potentially 'illegal' strike...

Message from Willie Walsh
 

Unite has informed us that the cabin crew ballot has resulted in a vote in favour of strike action among the union's crew members.

However, it is clear from the result that Unite does not have the support of the majority of our cabin crew. Of our 13,500 crew, only 43 per cent voted in favour of strike action in this ballot.

Unite has lost about 2,500 cabin crew members since this dispute started, as crew have voted with their feet. Even with a smaller membership, the proportion of Unite members supporting disruption continues to fall, contrary to the union's claims.

We urge Unite to return to the deal we negotiated, which guarantees pay rises for the next two years and secures terms and conditions for our existing crew that are the best in the UK industry.

Tony Woodley shook hands on this deal in October. Unite said it would recommend it to members, but then reneged on its promise. This U-turn reflected the union’s deep-seated internal divisions, especially its dysfunctional relationship with its crew branch, BASSA.

It is time for Unite to listen to the majority of crew and to its members in other parts of the airline, who want an end to this dispute.

Unite has not announced whether, or when, it plans to take industrial action. However, here is how you can help.

Volunteering

Due to the tremendous support and effort you showed during the previous strikes, we were able to keep our flag flying and support our customers and our cabin crew colleagues who came to work.

The response we received across the airline was fantastic, with every department volunteering to Back BA in the air and on the ground.

Backing BA – in the air

We have launched the chance for more colleagues to train and work alongside cabin crew. You will need permission from your line manager before applying via the homepage of the intranet.

Customer Support Programme

We would also need volunteers for a number of other key roles to support our customers and colleagues on the ground. Last time, the response was overwhelming with over 8,500 shifts covered during the period of disruption.

When we know the details of any strike action, there will be a wealth of information on the intranet to help you choose which role would be right for you, and again, you should speak with your manager before you volunteer.

In the meantime, volunteers are advised to make sure their details are up to date in the CSP booking tool.

My role

As you know, Keith Williams takes over as BA chief executive at midnight tonight and I will be moving to head up International Airlines Group (IAG).

Talks with Unite on cabin crew issues have been taking place for almost two years and during that time I have assisted our industrial relations team. I will continue to be available.

Thank you for your support.

And here I am, making one of my rare appearances here to comment on today's news.... More strikes on the way, eh? They're bound to happen. There won't be a settlement. I know (of) Keith Williams, our new CEO, very well. He is a regular visitor to my neck of the woods and, although he probably won't remember, I've met him before in my local airport.

Anyone who thinks that Mr. Williams heralds a new era of more relaxed industrial negotiation is in for a world of pain. Mr. Williams is an accountant, through and through. A numbers man. That's not to say he wants to run rough-shod over our T&Cs as much as Mr. Walsh may be considered to have done, but nor is the man going to roll over and give the unions what they unreasonably desire.

As the months have passed I've found myself being more and more sympathetic towards my striking colleagues. Sympathetic, but not to the point of wanting to join them on the picket lines.

These are people who have seen this company return to profitability in what remains one of the most harsh trading periods ever. Yet they remain resilient in their quest to win this battle against BA.

Now, I have to say, I don't see that there's a battle anymore. I think it's been lost. WELL AND TRULY LOST. But it could have been won.

Having moved to Gatwick recently - a move seen by many as "crazy" and "downright f*cking f*cked up", I can see first hand that Gatwick represents what I think the company would view as a very, very happy middle ground between Heathrow as-is and Mixed Fleet.

Gatwick offers a happy, contented, gelled crew who do an incredible job for what is, compared to what I used to earn at Heathrow, a very low salary. I've had my problems at Gatwick (which I had previously been reluctant to discuss, but am now happy to talk about and, more importantly, defend myself against), but in general the people here are astonishingly good. Professional, dedicated, loyal and hard working. They actually put me to shame (on occasion ;))

So when I hear that more strikes are coming, and that the main focus of these strikes is the return of staff travel, I have to wonder if those going on strike actually know why they're walking out, and don't just walk out cos that's what seems 'popular' - to those reading various internet forums, atleast.

With a little negotiation, perhaps Heathrow could have gone to the Gatwick Fleet way of doing things, as opposed to going to what I, personally, see as being one step lower and going for Mixed Fleet's T&Cs.

The new package offered seems to have been cast aside. If it weren't for the staff travel issue, it almost seems as though the new package would be perfectly acceptable - atleast as far as the hype on the telly and on the forums suggests. But considering a majority of those strikers chose to adopt the chant "you can shove your ID90s up your ar*e" during the last industrial action, I cannot help but muse over why striking for staff travel is so desperately important when everything else seems to have been somewhat cast aside.

The problem, I fear, is that people are being pressured - without knowing it - into voting "yes", and into backing up that vote by walking out. If one were to read Crew Forum (.co.uk) they would almost without doubt want to strike. I would, if I read it with any regularity (as it happens, I check in once a month). Though there are maybe only 20 people on there spouting the massively pro-Bassa gumph and urging people to strike, they post frequently and passionnately enough to make it seem as though everyone is on their side.

They're not, though. Far from it.

People still harbour the mis-guided belief that a strong "yes" vote will be enough to encourage the company's leaders to back down. It won't be.

The company's previous leadership has shown that it can run the airline well during "massive" industrial disruption. And, indeed, the company has put into place additional measures to ensure that the disruption this time will be greatly reduced.

Regardless of what the union would have you believe, coming from someone who worked during three rounds of previous strike action, things ran.... well, almost better than usual.

I agree that training our colleagues from other departments to work in our own is a crafty, somewhat underhand tactic; and to those colleagues who have volunteered to do our job, with the exception of our flight crew colleagues perhaps, I remind them that very, very few of their jobs require the same level of training they have had to undertake (off-the-job) as ours, and that helping BA this time around, though respectable, will undoubtedly come back to haunt them.

At the end of the day, this is bad news from a customer point of view, but perhaps good news from the point of view from the company and the share-holder. Whoever finds themselves in charge of dealing with the company during this latest bout of inevitible disruption will be armed with the knowledge that they can, as a result of a major union's misguidance, dismiss anyone they see as being 'troublesome' without really having to show much cause.

I applaud my colleagues for standing up for what they (are lead to) believe in, but I also plead with many of them - my friends - to consider that their actions come as the result of misguided leadership.

We have missed you Eddy. x

Do our more leagaly minded posters know what reasons are being given for the strike call and are they deemed to be Legal/illegal/protected/unprotected?

I think the reason is , because they can1!:ugh:

Just checking .. ;)

Hey hey! Here's hoping that BA don't go for an injunction! A strike would be a good, clean way to identify the dross, and dump them. Go for it, Unite and BASSA! Can you walk the walk? Because the talk has been seriously unimpressive! :D

I was with you all the way....until
 

Eddy,
I was enjoying your extremely lucid and well argued post...nice to hear a balanced view, until this bit:
Oh dear, you maybe didn't mean it quite like that, but do you really think a few hours training would be enough to pick up the basics of -
-Revenue Management
-Financial planning
-Employee development
-IT network maintenance
-Developing brand positioning
-Purchasing negotiating
oh yes, and Engineering??

C'mon. Cabin crew is not the only rocket science in this great company.
:)

I grant you that; the are many jobs in this company requiring a lot of training and specialist knowledge over and above what we, as crew, hold.

However, I'm talking about TEMPORARY staff. Temporary staff filling, essentially, gaps.

I have no doubt I could do a lot of the work in :

-Revenue Management
-Financial planning
-Employee development
-IT network maintenance
-Developing brand positioning
-Purchasing negotiating
oh yes, and Engineering??

I'm sure many of these departments endure more menial, tedious paperwork than we do, as crew. And if I'm told what to type into a database, I'll type it. How much training will I need?

I don't think I could walk in and be a Revenue Manager, a Financial Planner or an Employee Developer without significant training, but I bet I could do enough of the job to let those still working in those departments do twice the amount of actual planning/developing/managing that they might normally do.

Hear Hear DTM
 

I thought Eddy's posts were always extremely well thought out and observant but to say that CC training (6-8 weeks) is anything like that which licenced aircraft engineers go through is ill informed. Revenue Management (passenger and cargo) can make or break an airline quicker than a gradual decline in cabin service. Sooo many airlines have gone to the wall because of that one failure.

All departments are important in order to complete the given service - that is why they exist. If not, they would have been dispensed with long ago. You can't fly without F/D or CC but unless someone sells, books, plans, fuels, loads and dispatches the flight, it ain't going anywhere.

What is right from the Unite camp is that regardless of whether BA operate a 100% L/H programme or not, business will be put off. Why would any sane J Class passenger pay that class of fare to be told once on board that it is a reduced service due to CC action. I'd rather take an alternative and most business pax I talk to would as well.

I'm not a BA employee (another competing carrier) but I am a BA supporter but until this is sorted, there is better service available for the same or even less money so why take a risk?

I maintain : I couldn't be a Revenue Manager tomorrow - or even in eight weeks - without on-the-job assistance from more experienced and knowledgeable RMs. But nor can a Revenue Manager become a member of crew and go flying with 8 weeks of training without someone with more experience 'holding their hand', so to speak.

You need a certain number of EXPERIENCED crew on an aircraft to actually keep things running..... But with guidance, help and supervision, those with little experience can do the job - or parts of it.....

Without undermining the excellent work our VCCs have done, I don't believe for a second that, given a medical emergency onboard, our 'normal' crew wouldn't be turned to to take the lead.

Having worked during the strikes, I'd disagree (if I were a J-paying passenger). If I had any experience of flying with BA during the strikes I'd know that, despite a marginally reduced service (just fewer food options, really), the service onboard is actually better because those serving me/you WANT to be there.

Hear what you are saying Eddy - but believe me, there are a lot of Engineers that are VCC.
Can't speak for other departments so I'll let them have their word - but I'm talking about licensed guys and the like. Many, many doing jobs in offices that require at the very least a recognised apprenticeship or 5-10 years experience.

Besides - it's not really about "who's job is more menial than another", I don;t want to get into that and I know you don't mean to either.

The main point is that for CC training as a whole - it's one course, common across the board for all volunteering. Lots of organising, but in the end, repetitive training over and over for each person passing through Cranebank. End result? VCC

If, say the same were to happen in any other department - you would need many, many different courses of different lengths. The logisitics - I would say, would be nigh-on impossible.
Apart from the fact that many jobs don;t have training centres set-up where you go in one end and come out the other qualified - albeit raw.
Most of our training is done on-job.

As cabin crew, I couldn't agree more. Getting an aircraft from A to B takes terrific team work from each and every department and everyone is as important and valued as the next person in my eyes.
We all depend on each other to get the job done and no-one is more important or special than anyone else.

I think they will offer a much more in depth service this time around because I think all the VCCs have had more training now and have flown on flights with real crew in the interim while keeping their licence recent. So I anticipate that they will be doing hot food and a proper club service this time on the World wide flights. On E/F we did our usual service last time and on all the flights I flew on we had actual cabin crew not VCCs

Plus I think more crew will turn up this time. Last time VCCs were being sent home because cabin crew did come in and this time more cabin crew will turn up.

I actually think that most people would not even realise there was a strike.
On some of my flights some of the foreign passengers asked me when the strike would be taking place. I looked at them and said it is happening today but not all of us are striking and they had not even realised!! One Gold card holder told me that he had flown 5 times during the strike and had not even noticed anything. In fact things went smoother than usual if anything.

And let's be honest - so is ours.

In terms of the service, we're taught next to nothing 'in school'.

And even after safety training, which is somewhat regimented, things seldom follow the ideal course of action taught in Cranebank.

I agree with you in that I don't want to get into a tit-for-tat chat about whose job is more/less important/menial, but along with our pilots, I think ours is perhaps the ONLY job where the actions you take in a split second during which you're under immense pressure can have such a major impact.

And I think it takes years of flying to feel truly confident that you can handle these situations.

As a former travel agent and ground-volunteer (during snow), though, I'd agree again that getting a plane in the air is an effort from a team far, far deeper than the cheaply produced pin-striped uniform.

Don't start picking on lovely Eddy. He was not saying that anyone is more important, he was just saying, unwisely maybe, that you reap what you sew and that in his view it was not a good idea to offer to do someone else's job, in case the table turn on you.

Lets not get into a debate about, if it is a good idea or not please because it is a personal thing for those that did volunteer and all of them did it for different reasons, some enjoyed it and some hated it. Some regretted it and some are pleased they did it.

Lets leave it at that. Please.

I was thinking of volunteering to learn how to load containers so I could work on the ramp if required, one of the lady TRMs in FCO does it regularly! And I have always fancied a go on the push-back tug whizzing around with a 747 in tow! Not fancying the honey wagon at all though it probably is better than answering complaints in Customer relations! There are many other jobs in BA where volunteers could be useful not least the terminals. Now that we've gone down this route, I think we should all be able to multi-task. We could start by training some volunteer de-icing teams - those we really need!

May I just suggest that the VCC's start reading those manuals! On a recent flight one of your colleagues had a close encounter with the 767 door handle while trying to disarm the door unassisted! PPPPP!

Agreed - but how much of your total flying over the past, say 5 years, required these decisions?
1%? 5%?

In many other jobs - the on-job experience is required as a minimum.

In CC - the minimum is the safety standards to operate doors, evacuate, use equipment and react correctly to medical and fire emergencies etc.

While I'd agree that an experienced crew member is more likely to have had issues in the past and therefore the experience to deal with them - I'd say it's a smallish percentage of the whole CC workforce. Thankfully - full blown emergencies are rare. Side effect being that not everyone sees them or experiences them.

No-one knows how they'd react in a life threatening situation at 30,000 feet until it happens. Whether VCC or a crew member with 5-10 years experience that has been lucky enough to have not been involved yet.

Now - if you are talking about on-board service - different matter and I'd agree 100% that neither VCC or anyone can do the job without on-job training.
My point is that there are few jobs in other departments where you can do ANYTHING without on-job training. Legal minimums don't exist.
You might know how to use a Maintenance Manual for example - but there aint no course that will tell you how to apply it. Well, there is to a point, but as I said before, it takes a few years to learn enough to know.

Spanner,
You don't need to worry because no one could ever fill in as an engineer. You are totally right. You can be sure that there will never be VCC Engineers.

We just do happen to be in a job that anyone could do to some degree to get the company through a situation like this.

I don't think many other jobs could be so easily filled as you say. No one could learn check in or be an Engineer as you say.

Edit: this response was to your post a couple above.

Sorry Betty - I do respect your points and views and have done over the decades this thread has existed.

But you want to leave it there! Thanks but I don't.

Eddy raised the point that folk like Wonkaside and MM have been making for a while.
"Your next"
"All your roles will be filled with volunteers - see how you like it".

I have the utmost respect for the CC role - not least since I have done the course and a few flights. It's the hardest thing, mentally and physically together that I have ever tried and completed.

But - when it comes down to it -to suggest that any Engineering strike could be back-filled by volunteers is plain ridiculous. We are not all "database typists" or double-entry book-keepers. My God, and there was me thinking that the word "Engineer" automatically pictures a greasy oik with a spanner in the hand!
While I love the fact that folk know it is not - the sheer differing levels of skill-sets across the Engineering board (and other departments, but I can;t speak for them) makes any possibility of VEng, well...impossible.

I'm not sure why Eddy is going down this - "be careful, you might be next route".
Surely the danger of VCC was always in-mind with mass industrial action. My colleagues and myself were talking about it 20 years ago.

It's not putting anyone down - just making the point that an employee group that can be replaced by other folk with 3-4 weeks minimum training ought to be careful when bluffing a poker hand.
One day - your hand might get called. It was.

I think CC had a battle to fight. A genuine one that would have garnered support from many folk across BA. But the battle they chose was the wrong one. And now we are into striking over issues absolutely nothing to do with the original.
And the battle that should have been fought has become a minor skirmish caught up and brushed aside by the BA tanks, almost as a side-issue.
That to me is the saddest part of the whole thing. And the blame for that sits squarely with BASSA and Unite.

Edit: And I will leave it there! Sorry if I come across as a bit off. Just a bit peed off with this result.

Works both ways
 

Eddy,
If you can learn the art of Revenue Management or even better still, Revenue Accounting in anything less than six months then please go ahead. It is not data imputting - it is protection of revenue and in many cases, it is poorly paid. In BA, much of it has been sent to India so those jobs (and staff) have gone. One incorrect assumption in a particularlar market, peroiod (i.e. Easter) or even individual flight can lose a fortune almost overnight. Some of the highest paid staff at the Locos are the Revenue Management team as they can kill an airline so quickly.

In two airlines I worked for and I am sure that it goes for others, it was commonplace that when a female CC member became pregnant and could no longer fly, they were brought into the office to undertake admin duties. Given the size of one of my employers, that meant a permanent supply of "temps" thus preventing us employing permanent full trained staff. It does work both ways. I know this is a different scenario to the current BA situation but the reverse has happened before.

Chin up - it will be over some time

Before we all get into a heated debate over which jobs we could all do with a few weeks training, would it not be beneficial to return to the topic in hand, namely BA CC Industrial Relations and in particular the recent ballot result ?

On that point. It strikes me (no pun intended) that it is interesting that Len McCluskey was making less strident noises about strike action and in the past few days Unite have been talking more about a work to rule or 'guerilla action'. Not to sure what is meant by the latter term, but it sounds like the branch executive playing fast and loose with the member's interests to me. If the union call a strike but all turn up for work, what does that do for them ? Apart from make them all look like a bunch of charlies. If there is a code word that will be passed around the union membership that signifies 'turn up for work' , what happens when the line of communication breaks down and some members don't get it and fail to report for work ? This is not protecting members, it is putting their livelihoods at risk. The union is obliged to give 7 days notice of any strike action, has 28 days from the ballot result to give notice of any strike action and then only 12 weeks in which to conduct any walk outs. The legal process doesn't prevent them from taking off the cuff action, but such action would be deemed unofficial.

It is high time that Unite looked at these ballot figures and realised that they are now very much in a game of diminishing returns. Better to cut a deal now when you have a slender majority of support from members than to let it roll on and see that support eroded further.

One final thought. I noted that at the BASSA meeting at Kempton, members were urged to re-elect Lizanne Malone to the Unite executive. I thought that Duncan Holley had stated publicly that both he and Lizanne woud be retiring in October this year. So how come she is standing ?? Or was Duncan telling porkies.

OK Spanner,
I'm off to bed now but please do remember that Eddy, Ottergirl and me are not in the union anymore and did not strike. I know your all upset because I am too.

It really is not nice walking in to T5 in uniform on a strike day!!!

Although it's nice when you get into the CRC and the aircraft. Actually strangely nicer than normal because you are working with like minded crew.

Anyway Stay safe.

I know - and I think we all want the same thing.
Night.

So the figures of the ballot are out.

The thing that has struck me about CC disputes of now and the distance past is that despite the majority voting for a strike, only a handful ever have.

I have commented in the past that BASSA are still stuck in the seventies. In the seventies, if the majority of a union voted to strike then everyone went on strike - give or take a few (even those that voted no!)

So, in the modern world union members take a bit more control of their lives, if they vote no, they come into work, thus splitting the effectiveness of their union. This has been so apparent in this dispute.

The union are playing a game here. They are holding on until things get better in the company and then use that as an excuse that jobs, conditions etc. need not be changed. (this was suggested at the start of the dispute by some PPruners)

The union have now backed themselves into a corner. This dispute needs to be settled. The way to settle now is for the company to give the 90 days notice with a new contract - the union certainly do not seem to sensibly settle this dispute - (based on the one offered to the non union members) This will at least close the book on the story. (of course with many books you get a sequel, but not too soon in this case hopefully!)

So to the figures.

The majority of elegible union members have voted to strike. FACT!

The FACT that is reduced from previous ballots is irrelevant, it is a majority.

Statistically (lies, damned lies and statistics...) Of all the CC community, less than 50% are commited to strike action. These figures cannot and should not be used as an excuse that there isn't a majority for a strike.

How many times have you read that a company that has many unions for one group of workers, in a strike ballot, have had one union not voting for a strike? Admittedly not often but it has happened. This is the same with the CC, though of course the non union members are the group that are not going on strike.

Apologies if this is a bit dis-jointed and any clarification needed, I will try to provide.:uhoh:

What I do agree with the majority of posters here is that most of the cabin crew I come across in my job are friendly and pleasant. I could probably count on one hand (maybe 2 at a push) the number of rude cabin crew that I have come across. And to be clear, I meet them everyday at work.

Pilot?
Ops Control?
TRM?
Engineeer?

Care to add any more?:ouch:

Is there any point of this action?
 

BA have achieved the cost savings target for IFCE! - Fact

Mixed Fleet is in, all cabin crew are working to the compliment reductions for over a year. Fact

Cabin crew appear to be striking to get ST back, which would never have been removed had they not gone on strike in the first place. (already partly given back, with a full return in a little over 2 years)

BA have not moved from the last offer made to TW. Fact

Is it now safe to assume that this next action will be unprotected? And will the union leadership advise its members accordingly?:eek:

I voted YES. The ballot result presents a vote in favour of a strike. I agree that the support for an IA has gone down and I know that a strike will not have too much of an impact on BA's operation. Striking crew, MF crew and VCC will replace us. We all know that.

When I joined BA it was a requirement, above an GCSE, to be fluent in at least one European language. I was able to present four foreign languages. Some may say that I'm "overedcuated". The point is that it's extremely saddening when management says that even trained monkeys can do our job. It really proves how much they appreciate what we're doing. Some of us have been with BA for a long time, personally coming up to over 17 years, and really given them everything.

Can I afford to strike? Not really. I really struggled financiially after the last strikes and for the first time in my life I had to pay my bills using credit. Do I live a wealthy live? Anything but it. But, what can I do when BA is wanting to get rid of me? It's sadening to hear "colleagues" saying that we are replacable and that our job is not a career. It's not fair and very rude.

We are not all selfish crew wanting to destroy BA.

IMHO, Yes I believe this action is unprotected which maybe why UNITE have not declared strike dates. On the previous occasions the union have been pretty quick to announce these dates. I know they have 7 days now to do this and I really hope they reconsider their position.

As for your second question they have a moral obligation to advise their members that their action would be unprotected but I think that they will sincerely believe the opposite and so they won't.

MissM

Is the reason you voted 'yes' because the "management" believe "trained monkeys" can do your job, or because of the staff travel issue??

I too have worked in BA Engineering for over 20 years and have seen my job 'dumbed down' by the regulators.
The requirements all those years ago to become a LAE with CAA Section 'L' licenses were much more stringent than the EASA Part 66 licences we all have now.

It's not the management to blame for your predicament regarding job qualifications; it's EASA and the CAA. It is the regulators who decree the minimum qualifications for our jobs and any good management would start recruiting people who met those quals and pay them a salary commensurate with those quals.

Sadly change is part of life. British Airways is constantly evolving and we all have to change with it. If we don't we will only get left behind..........

Some very convenient quoting there.... What I actually said was :

And I have to disagree that split-second decisions are as important in these roles as they are for Pilots and Cabin Crew. In Engineering, for example, there's often time to realise a mistake has been made, if at all. And there's usually time to rectify it.

Onboard a plane during an emergency, if you freeze, you cost lives (potentially).