MSE News: British Airways stalls on strike-affected flight refunds

schoolrunmum

"There is plenty money in BA for the fat cat's and the managers and the pilots. But not the workers who the customer relies upon. Believe the BA spin all you want."

The pilots have already negotiated and made their savings-as well you know. They have given back more and more over the years till there's nothing left to give back.Now it's your turn.

dmg24

lolarosegem wrote: »

hyde, no of course we are not trained nurses as you rightly say that takes years. BUT if something happens to you on a flight, god forbid, heartattack, anaphylactic shock, choking, childbirth, it is us the cabin crew who will save your life. As you are nowhere near trained nurses. Just apparently "according to rude others on here" muppets.
How very rude some of you are. By all means argue the point, that's why there is a forum, but to reduce yourself to name calling is just pathetic.
Every single word i wrote is true, wether you care to believe or not.

I challenge each and every one of you, that if you went in to work tomorrow and your job description had completely changed, all chance of promotion gone, and the threat of a management team who have succeeding in "imposing" on you once, doing it again and again and again. You would be furious, you would be striking, and if not you are weak.

There is plenty money in BA for the fat cat's and the managers and the pilots. But not the workers who the customer relies upon. Believe the BA spin all you want.

For those of you more worried about your christmas than another persons livelihood, then boohoo, i'm glad you'll have a ruined christmas.

If I had a problem at work that could not be resolved through the grievance procedure, I would go to an Employment Tribunal.

Would you like it if someone decided to ruin your family Christmas? It is a pretty low move.

random8

Can I just make one thing clear, the threat of Industrial Action is due to the IMPOSITION of changes to our working agreements.
I enjoy my job, as many of you have said previously, I do not mind working unsociable hours, or missing out on various family occasions, I knew this when I signed my contract 8 years ago. When I signed that same contract 8 years ago there were certain terms and conditions that the company had in place e.g. crewing levels these have now been changed without any consultation with staff.
Ask yourself an honest question think about your job and the work that you do. If your agreements with the company that you worked for were suddenly changed by without any consultation how would you feel? I'm sure you'd feel angry and let down, which is exactly how we feel at the moment. Luckily for us there are about 13,000 with a strong voice so we are able to stand up for what we believe is right.
It is with regret that it has come to a point where IA is threatened, particularly over the busy Christmas period, however we have been forced into a corner by our management. I have come to the stage now where I have to consider my future employment and terms and conditions as a priority, I have a family and a mortgage to pay like many others.
We understand that changes need to be made particularly in this current climate and our unions came up with options to save a substantial amount (£56 million springs to mind, however unfortunately I do not have the exact figures to hand.) This figure was also evaluated by an independent company, it was not just the union plucking a figure from thin air. Ask yourself this question why was this offer not accepted if we are a company in a fight for survival?
Finally there has been lots of information about our salaries. To set the record straight cabin crew who start with British Airways on Eurofleet earn a BASIS GURANTEED salary £10,000 -£11,000 with allowances from ranging from £0 - £1000 approx per month ( no allowances are paid for holidays, sickness or training courses.) These figures are before tax and this is a FACT.
Please remember that there are always two sides to every story and articles you read in the paper may not always be true.
Many thanks

Kayteehee

I think it's disgusting that BA Crew have voted to strike at this time of the year. It means I may not spend New Year with my partner which I have been looking forward to since last new year's eve when it was not possible to spend it together.
So many families are going to be affected by this selfish decision.

Plenty of companies have had to 're-jig' their staffing policies as contingency in order to survive in the economic downturn, most workers have got their heads down and pushed through it. With the amount of people that have been made redundant in this country in the past 2-3 years, you should be grateful you still have a job.

British Airways is a complete joke. I will never again give them a penny of my money.

MSE_Martin

Hi Folks,

Just a quick note. While I understand feelings run high on this issue - this isn't the place to discuss the Unions or the lot of BA cabin crew. It is about practical hints, tips, solutions and experiences about what people can practically do to sort out their holidays with regards to the strike

If you want to discuss the wider issues please use the discussion time board.

Thank you

Martin

Bootsox

Oh well Martin, that killed the debate stone dead!

foc

While I feel sorry for those affected by the strike, I found a little background to the dispute below, having read the nauseating drivell by the anti union brigade. People do not strike for fun, BA workers won these terms and conditions through the strength of being in a Union over many years, like most workers in a Union. Lets face facts, we'd still probably be living under victorian type conditions if the working class had not risen to form Unions to change our lives for the better. Can you not see through the Capitalist media's propaganda? This current world crises was not of our making, yet people like the bankers are again coining it in from our handouts! Lets not join the race to the bottom. Enough of the I'm all right jack attitude, It's wealthyWillie Walsh and his Ilk you should vent your anger at, not hard working staff who are being kicked in the teeth! So Solidarity to all BA workers!

British Airways - What's really going on?

British Airways (BA) have announced that 1,700 jobs will go amongst cabin crew. 1,000 workers will take voluntary redundancy and a further 3,000 will move to part time work. This was due to take effect in November.
BA has informed staff that additional cabin crew will be employed on terms and conditions inferior to those who will lose their jobs. It is clear BA is attempting to push through a restructuring campaign, first through cabin crew and later to the rest of the company by reducing staff, increasing workload and driving down wages and conditions. Unite, the union which represents the bulk of cabin crew at BA, had called on management to withdraw the proposals and return to talks or "risk a serious, drawn-out confrontation".
BA has pleaded that it is in the middle of a financial crisis and that the airline industry is showing no sign of recovery. This March they claimed they had lost £401 million over the previous year. However there are sources within BA with information that they are in fact sitting on a £1 billion cash reserve.
This is not counted as an asset by a simple accounting trick. BA claims this money must be reserved in case the company goes bust overnight and is thereby liable for some arbitrarily selected number of potential customers it would have to pay back.
But BA is angling to buy BMI, Japan Airlines and merge with Iberia to create the largest global airline operator. These are not the actions of a company one day from crisis and liquidation.
BA's main aim is to come out of the industry crisis as a super profitable global giant through mergers and attacking wages and conditions.
Historically BA workers have been one of the best organised workforces in the country. Union density is very high with a long tradition of militant struggle. This has meant BA workers have managed to hold on to many of the concessions workers wrung from employers and government in the period of 1945-1972.
The centrepiece of this is the 1948 agreement. Under this agreement there can be no compulsory redundancies. If a job is abolished, then a worker has the right to be transferred to another job on the same pay with the same pay progression as his or her original job.
What this means in practice is that a worker's pay, and therefore their pensions, can only go up. Workers at Ryanair or Easyjet can only dream of such conditions. Naturally BA management hate this agreement and view the union activists who defend it much the same way a snake views a mongoose.
Since BA was privatised in 1987 the over-riding mission of BA management has been to smash the 1948 agreement and bring the unions to heel.
Tearing up the agreement is one thing, enforcing it on the workforce quite another. Unfortunately BA management have used the crisis in the industry to force national union leaders into accepting fundamental change in the way BA conducts industrial relations.
Three unions are present at BA - Unite (divided into T&G and Amicus sections), Balpa (representing pilots) and GMB. For industrial relations purposes the workforce is divided into six National Sectional Panels or NSPs. These are loading/ramp, administration, cabin crew, engineering, pilots and management. Each union nominates reps, in proportion to their strength among the workforce in an NSP, to negotiate with management of their section.
BA would find it very difficult to face down sustained united action by all the unions together. Management's strategy therefore is to carry out isolated attacks on different sections of the workforce. They try to probe for weakness among one section and use whatever inferior terms are enforced as a tool to drive down conditions in the rest of the company. So the attack on cabin crew is a provocation in a wider war against the 1948 agreement.

TheFaqqer

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Hi Folks,

Just a quick note. While I understand feelings run high on this issue - this isn't the place to discuss the Unions or the lot of BA cabin crew. It is about practical hints, tips, solutions and experiences about what people can practically do to sort out their holidays with regards to the strike

If you want to discuss the wider issues please use the discussion time board.

Thank you

Martin

You're right, Martin - however, when you are quoted as saying "Come on BA, stop ruining people's Christmas." in a release that links to this thread, you can see where people are coming from discussing where the blame lies.

It's all academic now, since Unite illegally balloted their "workers" and now can't strike until well into the New Year. That said, I wonder how many sickies there will be over the Christmas period?

random8

I can assure you as a BA crew member I will not be ringing in sick over the Christmas period. As I said before when I signed my contract 8 years ago I knew my job would involve working unsociable hours, Public holidays etc.

Just a thought though there is one thing that BA, a high court judge or any one else cannot control and that is the weather.

Do you remember the fog a few years ago at Xmas time or the snow at LHR last year? At this time BA asked for the union for dipensation in order to get customers to their destination at Christmas, which the union agreed to. BA also asked for volunteers (unpaid) to work in the terminal to help customers rebook/ get to their destination for Christmas which many crew did

After the public backlash I have receieved over the last few days at work and reading comments from the general public (see above) I will certainly not work outside of my contractual hours or do any "favours" for the company. I am sure many crew feel the same.
Enjoy your Christmas

lyon1980

lolarosegem wrote: »

I am british airways cabin crew of 15 years standing, long haul route's and I can assure you that i earn nowhere near £29000. My last year p60 was £17,820.
I have two small children and i have not been at home for christmas for 7 (Yes you read that properly ) 7 years!!!
British Airways have taken 3 crew off the aircraft, they have taken my terms and conditions and ripped them up. They have taken away all chance of future promotion.
No more promotion ever on current contracts.

They have made crew demotivated and miserable.
We spend easters, family birthdays, christmas and special occasions away from home year in, year out.

I do feel sorry for anyone who has a ruined christmas, but i have been looking after passengers and ruining my families christmases for over 15 years to do a job i was proud to do, enjoyed and paid ok, yes just ok.

Im a nurse earning not much more than you, I can guarantee going into this profession that that I will prob always work either xmas or new year day - or both, miss birthdays, and miss family occassions due to shifts and possible shortages in staff. I dont particularly like missing occassions year in year out but I expect it and I get on with it. My point being we cant moan about these things when we work in professions that dont/cant have the luxury of closing for xmas/newyear etc