"Unite will have to give seven days notice of strikes, so the first one could take place on December 21, at the start of one of the busiest weeks of the year for airlines."

Luckily we fly out on the 18th, but will this affect anyone else?

I will be flying Easy Jet after Christmas so that should be OK .
I think BA are going to make a stand on this one and it will a fight to finally resolve all the problems. The Union there has so much power a bit like old Scargill did but in a smaller way

I see they have voted to give themselves a nice 12 day Christmas holiday. Some bloke from Unite said that "The public will get behind this vote after 95% of the workforce voted for it." Yes, those that aren't flying BA perhaps! Like many trade unionists they still have this us and them attitude towards an employer. He reminded me of Red Ken - same bolshy attitude and smug 'I'm right' look about him.

A mate of mine is on the Board at BA, must ask him what the contingency plans are.

oops, just been corrected, he is not on the actual board, but rather on an advisory board to BA, that'll teach me to check my facts.

Strike effective from 22nd December.....
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/12 ... index.html

Hi,
Does anybody know if (when this has happened before) when BA strike if it has any knock on effect?
We're flying Gatwick to Faro Monday next with Monarch so is it safe to "assume" we're OK?

Regards

Ray & Carole

BA deserves to go under IMO. These people have held passengers to ransom on and off for ages - the unions need to get real. My understanding is that cabin staff at BA are on twice as much as Virgin and about £5-6K more than ejet staff.

And if i were Virgin, Ejet etc execs i wouldn't employ any of them afterwards, if BA did collapse!

Time for a BA boycott maybe? Crap airline anyway compared to many similar.

Why not just sack the lot of them and re-employ those that want to work. Or is that just too simple. Also I am sure that there are plenty of unemployed people who would grab the opportunity to work for half of what these greedy people get paid. As someone has said, maybe it is time to let BA go under! Would be a great shame but it might be a lesson to employees everywhere who think they can hold their employers to ransom.

Having spent 40 years working on performance related salaries in a variety of companies (large and small) it was the norm for the pay structure to be altered almost every year in some cases. There was certainly never any question of arguing. You simply voted with your feet if you didn't like it.

Time for these people to wake up to the real world.

On the radio yesterday a representative of the pilot's union said that earlier in the year they were asked by BA to make certain cuts and agree productivity deals. Their union employed an independant auditor to make checks on the BA management figures regarding the future financial state of the company. The auditors found Willy Walsh was correct in what he said and the pilots agreed to the changes. Do the cabin crew members want a job or not.

(Is Willy Walsh Louis Walsh's little brother?)

A message from Willie Walsh

You may have heard that Unite, the union that represents our cabin crew, has threatened strike action between December 22, 2009 and January 2, 2010.

Let me say immediately we will do everything we can to assist you at what will clearly be a very difficult time if strikes go ahead. We are working hard on contingency plans, and will announce them as soon as they are finalised.

We are also urging Unite to return to the negotiating table. There are important issues on which we have asked them to put forward new ideas.

Strike action is completely unjustified.

It's no secret that British Airways is in financial difficulty. Like other global airlines, we have been hit extremely hard by the slump in business travel brought on by the world recession.

We lost £400m last year and will lose at least as much this year. These are the worst financial results in our history. Our revenue is down £1 billion, so reducing costs is absolutely essential even to begin heading back toward profitability and long-term survival.

Many of my colleagues understand this. Our pilots have agreed a pay cut. Our engineers have agreed more efficient ways of working. A third of our managers have accepted voluntary redundancy. And nearly 7,000 colleagues volunteered for salary reductions because they wanted to help this great British company in a time of need.

But our cabin crew union has refused to engage in this process seriously.

My admiration for the professionalism and skills of British Airways cabin crew is second to none. They are an absolutely vital part of our airline, and a great asset. But they have been disgracefully misled by Unite as to how our company-wide cost reduction programme would affect them.

Unite claims that we are trying to "intimidate workers into accepting poorer contracts", forcing crew to leave the company, and "attacking" their pay and allowances.

This is fiction. Our package involves no reduction in terms or conditions for existing crew. Our Heathrow crew will remain the best paid in the industry. Average earnings for cabin services directors are £56,000 on long-haul and £52,000 on short-haul. For junior crew, they are £35,000 and £26,000 respectively. According to the Civil Aviation Authority, average costs of BA crew are twice those of their Virgin Atlantic counterparts.

In fact, despite our financial backdrop, more than 10,000 of our cabin crew will receive pay rises of between two and seven per cent this year, and again next year. In the worst recession since the Second World War, these are increases many employees in other walks of life can only dream about.

We have created opportunities for voluntary redundancy, and more than 1,000 crew have taken that option. Similarly, more than 3,000 crew have volunteered to switch to part-time working.

To accommodate these requests, we have made a small change in our onboard crew numbers from Heathrow, without affecting service standards. Our Gatwick flights have been operating on equivalent crew numbers for years - with Unite's agreement.

Unite's chief complaint seems to be that we are "imposing" the changes at Heathrow. The truth is we had been discussing them with the union for nine months but, despite all the evidence of the company's (and the industry's) financial plight, Unite would not be realistic about the clear imperative to reduce costs.

We could not wait any longer. We moved ahead, making sure that our changes were squarely based on voluntary choices for individuals.

Unite claims the changes affect contractual terms and conditions. We believe they do not. The union failed to gain an injunction to prevent their introduction, but a full court hearing to settle the contractual question has been set for February 2010.

We do not understand why Unite is threatening you with disrupted travel plans now over an issue that the courts are preparing to resolve in a few weeks.

A strike can achieve nothing except huge upset and inconvenience for you. We will do our best to provide as much help and support as we can.

Willie Walsh

Last Updated: 15:22 - 14 December 2009

I'm astounded by the earnings of the cabin crew. It seems an awful lot of money for what they do, even allowing for the fact that they are obviously trained to handle emergencies. I think that unless this is resolved they are going to bring BA to its knees - and then they will join the nearly 3 million other looking for work!

I have always thought that people who are on strike should have to wear a badge stating the fact and other shops, pubs, service industies etc can then either agree or refuse to serve them depending on whether or not they agree with their reasons for striking.

Good idea.