So the dispute rolls on with 6 strike days this week and seemingly no movement from BA management. The damage to the brand with the negative press, schedule changes and now the dispute being raised in the House of commons must be raising some eyebrows at IAG. And what about the cost of all those sub charters! What is it going to be like if Unite go to a full and continuous stoppage.

I haven't really noticed much about this latest strike in the press. And hardly any flights are being cancelled due to it (it appears to me the vast majority of Mixed Fleet are turning up for work).

Not sure what impact the strikes are really having to be honest?

So you accept a job knowing full well the details of the package ... then later you decide the salary is not good enough. In the real world you leave and find a job that pays more. In the screwed up world of these cabin staff and their union you go on strike. Amazing! And has anyone explained to them just how unsuccessful the last strike was? The staff gained NOTHING on that occasion, but lost staff travel priveleges and wages. Well done the union. There's no way that Willie and Cruz are going to give in this time either.

It also conincides with the Unite General Secretary Election for McClunky as it did last time.

BA cabin crew are the biggest Branch in the Union!!

During the last three days of strikes there were about five return flights cancelled so in terms of cancellations it's having next to no impact.

Whilst I support better T&Cs for MF, it's notable that some of the loudest voices elsewhere egging on crew to strike are from those who went on strike in 2010 and have been against MF from the start. There is definitely a sense of some seeing this as unfinished business and actively wanting to see MF destabilised.

Unite and BASSA are becoming increasingly irrelevant and unrealistic.

Sky News have made it their main headline this morning, interviewing one crew member who says they can only afford pot noodles.

Striking British Airways hostess: 'We can only afford Pot Noodles'

Saw that report.
There was a lot of "A friend of mine told me....." etc etc.

So not fact but gossip.

Has BA not thought about an accommodation block at Heathrow or midway between LHR and LGW? Is there one and the Crew opt not to use it?

Do BA get discounted crew rates for staff prior to flights?

Going back to the mid 1940's (iirc :D) during the development of London Airport now lhr,it was found there was a shortage of housing within easy commute to the airport.
So many properties were built for airways staff in stanwell and the surrounding areas ,these have now been absorbed into social housing or sold off.
Exert from HACC. In its early years, at a time of acute housing shortage, the Committee gave a great deal of practical support to securing adequate housing provision for airport based staff in local areas. With assistance to what became British Airways Staff Housing Association, some 3,500 homes were provided by 1952, many of them in Stanwell, Heston and Feltham.

sorry a little of topic.

After watching Willie Walsh answering questions on Sky news, I can only say how I am appalled at his answers and blatant disregard for crew welfare. I find it very disappointing, although i’m not entirely surprised at his apparent lack of knowledge regarding the rules for crew commuting to work. (what are his middle management actually telling him???) He is obviously so out of touch with his employees that he does not realise or even care that he is in danger of eclipsing Bob Ayling as the most detested of BA/IAG executives! His appearance on Sky has turned into the biggest rallying cry for this dispute so far. He clearly does not even want to try and understand the financial hardship forcing many of these crew members into a situation where they have no other option but to commute many hundreds of miles from a place of rest/home that they can actually afford, to do the job they love. All this coupled with him then defending a £2.4 million salary and conveniently forgetting the eye watering pay rises he and several other board members of BA/IAG have received over the last 5 years, it is no wonder the Unite union membership level is continuing to grow steadily every day this dispute goes on. The customers and the staff can all see how this dispute is affecting the business and damaging the image of BA as a good employer, yet Willie continued to dismiss and deny this obvious impact to the business. And alas, the division being created between the striking crew and those who are not partaking in the action will certainly last for years to come. And I would say that those other non flying-staff groups who are so very short sighted and silly enough to meddle in other staff groups disputes by volunteering to fly as crew during the dispute are certainly making a rod for their own back, just ask those who did it before!! People don’t forget things like that.

Only now under the threat of 7 continuous days of strike and more being planned, are BA starting to show tentative moves towards meaningful re-engagement in negotiations through ACAS. But his dispute is far from over and judging by the mis information, scare tactics and threats flowing out of Waterside in the last few days, I doubt very much that this is an honest attempt at brokering a settlement.

However the silver lining on these clouds, is the most comendable camaraderie and solidarity being shown amongst the supporters and activists of this dispute. Also, we have learned that striking crew will have about £35 per day deducted from their salary, while the Unite Union supports them with strike pay of £60 per day! Yes, they make more money from the very well supported hardship fund, while they strike! This just highlights the crux of this dispute.

In the face of some very heavy handed rebukes from managers patrolling T5, the check-in areas and the car parks for any crew member who publicly show signs or emblems of support, the level of support is only growing with more and more encouragement from the other fleets. Anyone can see this incredibly strong and galvanising solidarity will cause BA even more upset in the future, unless it is handled with extreme care and the attention it deserves. Currently BA are just fanning the flames of discontent.

KTF

Here we go again As Virgin Mary now illustrates, a rerun of Unite against BA/ Willie Walsh, with the unfortunate people of Mixed Fleet used as the catalyst this time around. If Unite had negotiated seriously last time, MF would not have been created.
Better dust off the old cabin crew uniform. Who won last time?

What a load of left wing Corbynista tosh that post was!

Neatly forgetting that the dismal terms and conditions suffered by Mixed Fleet is a direct result of Unite/BASSA's lunatic behaviour in 2010!

Here a suggestion: BASSA should ask its well rewarded members to forgo their pay increase for this year and consolidate it with the BA offer to their 'Poverty Pay' colleagues.

This would result in a good increase to Mixed Fleet pay at a small cost to their 'Legacy' members.

Just a thought......

Some crew are in for a very nasty shock when they get their February payslips if they think they earn more money by striking.

Unite pay strike pay for the days crew go on strike.

BA deducts pay from the day a crew member goes on strike until they are next rostered for duty. Big difference.

And crew lose other bonuses for attendance etc. And they are losing out on a pay rises received by non-union MF members.

I wonder how many crew who went on strike in 2010 who couldn't contain their excitement at the prospect of strikes on MF bothered to point this out?

Also, back in 2009/10 BA made it very clear that the cost of industrial action would be recovered from the department responsible for it, so be careful what you wish for....

It is also beyond tragic that some are using this strike to replay the battles of seven years ago again in their own heads.

Are they dismal though? I know MF crew who have left for other airlines and they each believe they have made a mistake. MF terms and conditions are perhaps dismal compared to the rest of BA crew, but not when compared to the rest of the industry. Had the legacy crew given some concessions without such a fuss, MF would not exist. However Unite walked straight into the trap back then and the rest is history. These strikes are costing IAG peanuts. There simply are not enough crew in this workgroup to force IAG's hand using strike action. The only question is how long is it going to take them to realise they were defeated before they even started? Unite should have known this, and almost certainly did. It has all just been a political game.

To put the figures into perspective. I think the Legacy crew strikes cost something just over two hundred million pounds. These strikes so far have probably cost just a couple of million. If you say there are three thousand striking crew, a couple of million would pay for about a £700 one of pay bonus each. If added to basic salary, that would be a couple of million pounds per year extra every year (increasing as the MF numbers increase). It is very easy to see why the company isn't budging. The only thing that will see a payrise is if they cannot recruit enough crew. Currently they are receiving eleven applicants per position, so they can be fussy and only take the top ten percent.

Didn't have much sympathy when legacy CC went on strike.
MF - Loads of sympathy but as GS Alpha suggests - no win situation.

Well a second ballot is out for more strike action from MIxed Fleet Unite and yet the BA management spin machine seem to be putting more effort into videos, letters and blatant untruths while trying to convince thier crew to vote no, rather than simply addressing the core issues. Crew management does not need to be difficult, so why do BA always make it so???

They (BA management) always have been awkward ! So long as the work is covered, which the majority of it has, I fear our MF colleagues are getting nowhere fast. It is nothing new in the past they spent much of the time spinning the facts and the travelling public are not interested.
I hope for the crews it is resolved soon as it must be so demoralising, especially as 'your' card is marked henceforth!

So it's not like this then:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmZw...yShuQ&index=31

I get the impression these days that airlines are glad of whoever they can get to do the job.

No damage to the brand other than in the misguided minds of the cabin crew who were striking. If you can get more elsewhere then why not move onwards and upwards?

classic video but pre - 'MG Midget from uniform stores' days

Well here we are again, July 1st and the start of yet another totaly avoidable BA fiasco. Once again BA management are digging into an entrenched position of refusing to pay the Mixed Fleet Cabin Crew a decent living wage, whilst spending huge amounts of cash on wet leasing aircraft and crews to cover the continueing strike action.

Well done Mixed Fleet strikers for having the courage and conviction that many on this forum didn't think you had! And shame on the strike breakers and ground staff who are volunteering to be tempory crew, your misguided action will only prolong the dispute even more.

Lots and lots of spaces in the car park this morning…….

KTF

Unfortunately Mary, 9 shiny Qatari A320s parked too. Ready to take up the slack.

It's also the start of Wimbledon fortnight.

You're right, even without a Strike and before Mixed Fleet was born, BA occaisionaly had to wet lease Short Haul aircraft and crews because of crew "sickness " during Wimbledon and other social events in the summer!!

I haven't read through all of the posts on this thread, but would be interested to answers to the following questions:
1. What did the strikers/union gain from the first series of strikes?
2. Surely the people joining BA as Mixed Fleet Crew knew the terms and conditions and salary before they signed their contracts, do what justification for then going on strike because the pay is too low?

I understand that MFU reached a potential settlement on financial terms but was unable to recommend the deal because BA would not remove the loss of staff travel and loss of bonus from the agreement.

The information from MFU about current strikes references the right not to be punished for undertaking legal action. If correct, this is why many people believe that BA could have averted the current strike at very little cost.

As for knowing what one signed up for, anecdotal evidence suggests that MF crew are not earning what was advertised. I cannot confirm if that is the case, merely that it is what is suggested in answer to the question.

I wonder if Mr Cruz and the I.T. lost their BA concessions for the I.T. f**k up??

Unless its in their contracts that in the event they screw up they loose their BA concessions it would be illegal to remove them.

And it would be relatively simple court case to get them back and they would also get damages.

In this case CC did have it in their contracts that going on strike would mean they would loose their concessions so it perfectly legal.

I understand that the difference is slight but significant. Staff travel is not a contractable right rather than being an employers term of contract that it will be removed.

The problem is that during the big BASSA strikes BA did the same and removed pay and concessions. Then in order to return to some kind of normality rescinded this and there was no loss to crew.

It seems that the new management see this as weakness and will stand firm no matter what in order to send a strong signal to others who may contemplate taking action.

The strikes seem to be having very little, if any, real effect on BA so I guess they will continue to play hard ball.

Not sure about very little effect, so far this year with the strikes plus the major outage the cost will be significant? Doubt there will be any bonuses for the next year!

I suppose it depends on how one defines 'little effect'.

From a passenger point if view it is correct to state very little effect. From a company point if view the debate remains open. This doesn't equate to a failure on behalf of the union. The target was disruption to BA not its customers.

There is the old adage that if you don't know history, you may be doomed to repeat it. Crew who were not around during the BASSA/BA weenie roast should have been well served to do their own research on how BA and Willie handle cabin crew strikers.

It could have saved them a great deal of loss and heartbreak if they'd done deep research and tried any other way possible. If all else failed and strike was imminent, then crew needed to be aware what they were up against. I'm afraid that some crew, who may have still been in 6th form last time Willie took on a cabin crew union, just didn't know what would happen.

He's played another blinder. He's made missing crew unremarkable and basically unneeded.

PC767, you hit the nail on the proverbial. Little effect though isn't quite correct--I'd go so far as to say Willie has delivered to a great number of his premium pax a BETTER service on strike than without one.

The Qatar wet leased aircraft have a genuine wider comfier premium seat up front--not the narrow economy seat with just a table in the middle seat.

Reports coming in from veteran BA travelers in CE are extolling their wonderful experiences during the strike, saying the Qatar crews are fantastic, many of the pilots flying them are British anyway, the food service is of a much higher caliber and served with panache and professionalism by Qatar crew (compared to BA's CE food service), and they are even getting their pre-flight champagne service during loading. Value ADDED not lost.

Some report friendly banter over the strike with Qatar crew and overall the cabin atmosphere is reported to be jovial.

When an airline delivers better, higher quality service during a strike to many of their highly valued premiums, then a union needs to wake up and smell the roses and try another method to get justice for its workers.

This method currently in play is not the way. But for gasping dinosaurs like Unite, they only have one arrow in their quiver--strikes.

I'm sorry for all involved on the crew side. It's awful. You've been led badly. BA are playing hard ball yet again and they are in this for keeps. Deep pockets and full planes going out.

They may eventually cave, but only after maximum point has been made about what happens if you strike. We'll see.

Does anyone know,if the Qatar crews are reporting at CRC? If so what kind of reception by BA crews?

Also who is catering the Qatar services?

QR wet-lease to be extended to end of July
 

Don't know the answer to VC10s Q above, but ......

Application to extend the QR wet-lease right through to 31 July.

http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/2229.pdf

Comments by close of play Thursday

Interesting. Regular BA passengers may also be seeing just what has been taken from them at BA. Strike or no strike BA now has more seats per aircraft than Qatar, all of which are served by 3 cabin crew against 5 for Qatar. Better seats, better crew ratios, better product, better and free food and beverage; the only area BA seems to be 'higher' is in pricing.

For many passengers, travelling Qatar might just be the reminder they need that BA is also taking them for a ride. I was also under the impression that BA MF crew were highly commended for being young, enthusiastic and friendly.

...........................

All this talk of WW, where is Alex Cruz, he is the CEO of BA and one can only presume must be on an extended holiday, unless someone knows better? Our guests do indeed check in at T5 with the residents and rumour is, it is all very friendly including a bit of banter!

Claptrap. He's allowed a hosts of Cruz Control's super cost savings to be sprayed against a clatty wall as BA has to spend a fortune chartering a fleet of aircraft in the medium term. These MF kids are not the red barons of the old BASSA brigade, they're young enthusiastic kids who were mis-sold a poorly paid job to make an off the shelf Accenture clone another million in the bank. Aside from cost cutting what is Cruz good for? His latest idea is to have two airlines in one, a loco down the back and a premium up front, insisting he's competing with Norwegian and ignoring the KLM, Swiss and Lufthansa's of the world. He'll have great short term profits till he cashes out and someone else has to come in a rescue the brand when cost cutting can go no further.
"Show me the ******* money" as Willie Walsh once said.