BA Strike - Your Thoughts & Questions

[Neptunus Rex]

If BASSA were to lose another 2,500 members or so, they would represent less than 50% of the BA cabin staff. Then what would happen?

[semp66]

SNAS...I thank you kindly. Am flying BA from Jnb via Heathrow to Atlanta on the 10 th June and the looks of some of that lot had me worried.

[plane speak]

Derek's latest tweets

Derek is still tweeting.....

5 hours more talks .... Willie not moving on no cost item .... More convinced than ever he doesn't want a settlement ...
If I am right that Willie doesn't want to reach a settlement someone in BA needs to get a grip of him ....
Don't take my word about Willie ... Ask why he doesn't take up my challenge to air the arguments in front of cameras ....

[johnoWhiskyX]

I think membership of BASSA is largely irrelevant. Quite soon BA will be able to fly allmost 100% wthout the support of bassa mentalists.
WW has to go along these lines, because if BASSA remain a force to be reckoned with their reduced numbers will lead to a greater proportion of membership being hard liners and they will never accept a WW deal.

Once BA can fly at 100% or as near as damnit, then strikers become surplus to requirements. It doesnt take a genius to see what could possibly happen..even allowing for some being taken back to relieve VCC.
Im not a legal expert but i would have thought BA have a sweet defence against claims of unfair dismisal in that BASSA members refused to negotiate and BA have a duty to existing workers, members of the public ect to carry on operations and hired accordingly given BASSA's lack of goodwill ( or sanity) in negotiations.

I dont think they class it as dismissal i think it's a frustrated contract in that neither party can see an end to a dispute or term of illness.

Willie could give travel back, but if i was in his position i would be wanting major concessions from the union before doing so. For the union to think WW is going to give back travel without anying in return..lala land.

[plane speak]

Unite BA strike update day 16

Unite continues to receive reports on the impact of the strike including:

• On June 1st, only one BA flight took off between 1pm and 3pm at Heathrow, bound for Seattle. Normally, early afternoon is a peak travel time for BA.
• BA continues to try to persuade striking crew back to work with inducements. Crew who are on strike report being called at home by managers who offer plum trips, such as a trip to Narita, a much sought after trip which rarely comes up for crew. 23 crew are being rostered onto these flights, yet only 12 are needed. Crew suspect that the over-rostering is because BA has no intention of putting crew returning to work on these flights. They may show for work on the promise of a Narita trip but find they're sent to a different destination altogether.
• Some 130 volunteer pilots have "unvolunteered" (source: crewforum.co.uk).
• T5 is a ghost town as passengers either stay away or are put onto other carriers.

How much longer can they continue to believe this xxxx

Link here

[Neptunus Rex]

From the latest Unite bulletin:

23 crew are being rostered onto these flights, yet only 12 are needed.

Does that mean that Unite has accepted the 'imposed' crewing level?

[Boxkite Montgolfier]

An excellent rebuttal on the other thread by Hotel Mode exposing the contemptuous lies on the Unite site appraisal of Day 16!

Actually 23 Pax aircraft departed and the Seattle was scheduled after 1500. There were 11 departures during that hour.
It continues to defy belief that which is proclaimed in print by
Unite/Bassa

[johnoWhiskyX]

If anyone believes only 1 plane took off between 1-3. Then i wouldnt like to fly with them. Seriously, anyone with that level of sense in charge of my safety. I don't think so.
Just sack em all.

What is astounding is they can come out with utter crap like that and
1) Think it's believable.
2) Think everyone is a stupid as them.
3) expect to not be challenged on it.

just one bassa member, please for your own sake challenge the rubbish they are coming out with. If they can't give you a striking brother or sister and answer how can you trust them?>

[Snas]

Semp

SNAS...I thank you kindly. Am flying BA from Jnb via Heathrow to Atlanta on the 10 th June and the looks of some of that lot had me worried

Oh heavens ?? old bean, worry not and enjoy your flight.

The majority, yes majority, of BA cabin crew are excellent at their jobs and have a basic and genuine desire to provide a quality service to their customers. Even the bad minority are not dangerous, a bit surely perhaps but no more than that.

[Mariner9]

I agree Johno. I've said in the past that I've always found every single BA CC I've spoken to (and that's a lot) intelligent and articulate, but so many aspects of this pointless strike defy belief. How can intelligent people truly believe this nonsense? And why can't a single one of them provide a lucid, well argued post clearly stating their reason to strike, and more importantly, what they hope to achieve?

[plane speak]

On June 1st, only one BA flight took off between 1pm and 3pm at Heathrow

Someone should suggest BASSA/Unite take a look at Casper flight movement display and set the date/time to 1 June at 1pm in replay mode and just sit back and watch all the BA planes that took off! Over 20 airborne between 1 and 3 by my reckoning. Perhaps the switch from Westerlies to Easterlies confused them.

[kenhughes]

baggersup

I think a mass resignation is completely the wrong way to go about it.

IMHO, the reasonable BASSA members, (who seem to outnumber the militants by around 3 to 1), should take control of their union, not abandon it.

Why haven't they called for an Emergency General Meeting, booted out the dinosaurs, elected reps from within their own ranks and negotiated a settlement?

From my time in the UK, it seems that an EGM clause is a required part of a trade union's constitution.

[ExXB]

More on the Osama boarding card

Now I know how that boarding card was generated. They used this

[Haymaker]

Weather, food and drink update

Over on the Cabin Crew thread there is today’s update from the party at strike HQ.

Tony Woodley said the other day "They are trying to starve our members back to work". Don’t worry Tony, it would appear that your man Duncan is doing a sterling job on the provision of food and drink.

For another view on this see also:

Aid agencies alerted as BA strikers face starvation | NewsBiscuit

[Chuchinchow]

Yet more on the Osama bin-Laden "boarding card"

Bad news spreads - and is wantonly distorted - very quickly:

London - British Airways Red-Faced after Bin Laden Boarding Pass to Washington, DC -- VosIzNeias.com

[cdtaylor_nats]

If all of the non-UK resident members of Unite are paying into the political fund that is financing the labour party isn't that illegal?

Wasn't there a lot of fuss about non-doms funding political parties?

[Diplome]

I've had two cocktails this evening...and my posts might be a tad intolerant of individuals who feel that life is a trauma because they choose to live HUNDREDS OF MILES from their place of employment.

We lost a neighbor today..and my husband is now caught in traffic waiting for a body to be removed so that he can return home.

Silly Simpson and Woodley for thinking that that they even can begin to understand the needs and feelings of the common man.

[Lou Scannon]

From the other thread:

"Finally it was reported back that the USA steel workers have donated $100,000 to our cause. Don’t you just love them?" says Duncan.

Is this true? What have a load of hard pressed and hard working US Steel workers got to do with supporting highly paid CSD's in their struggle for an easy lifestyle?

...or is this yet more BASSA "news".

[Landroger]

Lou Scannon

"Finally it was reported back that the USA steel workers have donated $100,000 to our cause. Don’t you just love them?" says Duncan.

That was a claim that caught my eye too, Lou. It is terribly difficult, almost impossible in fact, to believe that a Union full of hard bitten, negotiation wise, horny handed sons of toil like American steelworkers, has even a passing resonance with airline cabin crew of any ilk, let alone limey ones. The claim doesn't ring true and there must be someone, somewhere on this forum who can either verify the donation or bust BASSA's claim?

There is a sense that the end game in near, but I'll admit I can't see quite how its going to play out. Probably with a whimper rather than a bang, if history is anything to go by.

Roger.

[ChicoG]

O'Leary backs Walsh

Words of support from Mr. LCC himself....

...the beleaguered airline has found an unlikely ally in Ryanair chief executive, Michael O’Leary, who praised its management for the handling of the dispute and its endeavours to break the union stranglehold.

“BA management has done a good job,” O’Leary said. “A more intelligent union leadership would do a deal.”