LOL. I thought his name was Juan Tripp(e)!! Still a great name for a CEO of a airline company!

Baggersup
 

Unbelievable, and proved in court to be the Union side that refused to talk to each other and BA over several months last year.

How the members can claim support for these idiots that run the cabin crew unions amazes me.

Still, at least offers the membership the chance to speak out; and at least with CC89 (unlike BASSA, where any negative post is moderated) that might mean something.

Got to say though, that the various Unite factions do give good entertainment value. They certainly come up with stunts that take you by surprise!

Warning! Thread Drift - TWA trumps PA & BOAC
 

Baggersup, I can't let this remark go unchallenged: When those two airlines were flying, I was a very frequent trans-Atlantic pax - and IMO, TWA beat both "in service" across the ocean. I'm not knocking BOAC or PA, but while you may have been looking to beat the other in service, TWA was eating your lunch on the USA-LHR routes! To be fair, I think PA had the better intra-Europe service under the Fifth Freedom and cabotage rights that existed following WW2).

Remember, those were the days of government set fares. The only lure to the pax was in-flight service, the schedule, and the most modern (and fastest) aircraft.

Mods, sorry for continuing the thread drift

The SOSR route.

Seriously doubt BA would sack strikers who made the decision by ballot. May be legal but would create one hell of a backlash.

Not my fight, why risk my hard earned. BA management care for me (or you) as little as BASSA do. Lost my 2007 trip to SAfrica due to strike action, got compensation from BA because of its criminal price fixing.

Amicus statement
 

If in BA’s eyes BASSA have become largely irrelevant then I’m unable to find the word that would describe how they view Amicus.

Let them huff and puff, few care, I most certainly dont.

I'm more alarmed at Unite and their inability to control this situation. I have always known that BASSA were clowns, you only needed to read anything they put out to know that you were dealing with people of limited ability.

Unite however, as I say, are the shock for me. I would say the super union experiment has failed, there isnt any central strategy at work here it’s just chaos that has now descended into an undemocratic farce where a few reps get to decide there will be no ballot, having previously promised there would be, this is Unite’s branch, it is they who are tainted by all this just as much as the BASSA circus.

Does anyone know the number of Cabin Crew represented by Amicus? I've read it somewhere but can't locate the post.

Probably somewhere around the 1000 mark - maybe a bit less these days - they're a very small branch compared to BASSA yet have completed all negotiations in the past.

I would not be surprised if BA responds to TW's plea for a revised offer with a terse instruction to get Unite's own house in order first.

Does the number of strike pay claims by CC89 members (a mere 40) exclude claims from the reps themselves?

Thanks winstonsmithso lets say Amicus/CC89 have:

1000 members
20 Reps (thye had this number of reps in 2005 from what I can tell)

This means, assuming each rep went on strike, that each rep has been able to convince only 1 member each to also go on strike!

thats only 2% of the membership in total they have pursueded!

And yet Amicus takes such a hard line, seemingly against the will of their membership... most bizarre!

LD12986 - I would likewise be surprised if BA do not send Woodley back with his tail between his legs. If it doesn't then BA will look like a fool.

BA made several hard fought concessions during its negotiations with TW including returning ST and making a special case of its previously Union-agreed disciplinary process to include ACAS arbitration. Both of these were counter to WW's public announcement at the Malta conference that no concessions would be made so, clearly, they were not offered easily. These concessions were accepted by TW on the basis the offer would not only be recommended but also actually presented to a consultative ballot of the rank and file.

The way the Union and its Branches are behaving is causing BA to negotiate against itself. If BA falls for this trick it would be very naive indeed especially when it currently holds all the cards and its only really acceptable outcome will be to crush BASSA's current leadership thus preventing this whole ugly episode from happening time and time again.

If BA does agree to restart negotiations at the very least it should strip back its previous ST and disciplinary concessions and start again from where it began before but this time with a clear understanding that anything agreed stands for the ENTIRE Union and its Branches and not just for TW.

Don't forget this entire matter is actually one of a monumental power struggle for who controls BA's IFCE operations.

No more Mr. Nice Guy!

Something that's been bugging me..

From the other thread:
To quote wikipedia:
There seems to have been a trend over these threads to take CRM, which is ultimately quite a specific set of skills to minimise human error and converted it into some notion that all crew have to be best friends.

It is TW that has egg on his face at the moment. He publically stated that the last offer was the best that could be expected, his branches told him it was not good enough and sent him back to BA with his cap in his hands like Oliver asking "Please Sir, can I have more?"

BA does not need to do anything. TW is the one that is in a difficult position - will BA trust him with any further offers? The last one was conditional on several things, one being a recommendation from the union, TW gave that recommendation and his underlings made him look foolish and out of touch by refusing to recommend the offer. TW is the one that needs to make things happen to restore his authority and reputation.

BA on the other hand have the savings they need, they have not given a pay rise to the majority of crew, have introduced MF and can continue to grow MF as quick as they like without interference. They can transfer whatever work they like to MF without interference from the union as there is no agreement for route transfers for them to breach as UNITE have failed to negotiate one. There can be no court challenge to the route transfers as there is no agreement to breach.

BA can sit fat, dumb and happy in the knowledge that every day that passes moves a strike away from the holiday period and the savings they are reaping continue to grow. BA has no pressing need to settle this dispute immediately, they can afford to wait the unions out. If BA do act it may give the unions a new legitimate reason to strike, at the moment BA can sack people that strike as the action would not be protected.

AMICUS, the bit part players in the IA with only 40 strikers have effectively ruined the latest chance for a settlement - democracy in action? 20? Reps, looking after the interests of 40 CC, out of 13000 dictating whether there will be a consultative ballot on a settlement to the dispute. You couldn't write this stuff - nobody would believe it.

CRM
 

WillDAQ - CRM can also stand for Customer Relationship Management and this definition is probably nearer to what is affecting BA's customers/clients/passengers (choose whichever is your favoured tag for SLF today :ok:)

going off at a slight tangent, can i assume that we must now treat BA cabin crew as 'royalty'?

'spect duncan will want an invite!

Cabin Crew are an important part of CRM - the wikipedia entry is wrong to suggest it is confined to the cockpit. If the relationship between cabin and flightdeck is poor then this has a clear impact on safety.

Undoubtedly, however it's the definition of relationship that's skewed.

It does not mean relationship in terms of how they interact social downroute. It's about clear concise communication of pertinent facts in a timely manner and focusing on the job in hand in an un-emotive manner.

Now undoubtedly for pilots there is a softer aspect to this as the actions of the pilot and co-pilot are strongly linked: they are carrying out different interlinked tasks at the same time.

However, for a large group of cabin crew carrying out tasks which are essentially stand alone how well you get on with the other crew really shouldn't be an issue.

BA cabin crew undergo CRM as part of their annual checks along with flight crew colleagues.

The interaction of cabin and flight crew is essential to safe operation of any flight.

The British Midland incident proved this.

With out doubt ensuring cabin and flight deck work as a team is paramount.

On the number of Amicus reps, the last page of this document lists 21 Amicus reps at the time of publication:

http://uniteba.com/ESW/Files/AMICUS_News_Oct2009.pdf