MSE News: British Airways cabin crew to strike - your rights 22 February 2010 at 7:07PM in Flights, currency & car hire 18 replies 3.4K views

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"British Airways (BA) cabin crew have voted to strike in a bitter row over jobs and working conditions, it was announced this afternoon ..."

Read the full story:

British Airways cabin crew to strike: your rights

charlie2512

While I have flown with BA many times in the past & like their service, the staff are doing great damage to the airline. While there is a threat of strikes, I have chosen to book with Virgin even though I think their inflight service is worse; however I do not want my holiday disrupted. Having booked a villa in Florida, I don't want to risk not getting there due to potential strikes. The cabin crew, who are reputedly much better paid than other airlines, are ultimately risking their jobs if they continue to threaten strike action. How many more people like me are booking with another airline "just in case" they go on strike?

malkie76

The title of your news story is inaccurate and misleading. Can you update it please

dmg24

Did we have a story about Lufthansa ... or is it only BA and Ryanair that make headlines?

malkie76, at least if our flights are messed up we can camp out in Galleries!

(ETA: not 'our' flights - malkie76 and I are not going on holiday together! )

Inactive

charlie2512 wrote: »

While I have flown with BA many times in the past & like their service, the staff are doing great damage to the airline. ?

Of course BA ( mis ) Management have played no part in any of this..

An 80% vote for action looks quite overwhelming to me.

Mr_Lahey

Inactive wrote: »

Of course BA ( mis ) Management have played no part in any of this..

An 80% vote for action looks quite overwhelming to me.

(I posted this elsewhere, but would like to add it to this)

I want to lend a few facts to this debate:

BA made a loss of £342m Between April and Dec 2009.

BA cabin crew earn on average twice as much as other airline cabin crew, the lowest wage on long haul is £36,000, in comparison to £14,000 on Virgin.

Now, lets put this into perspective - 80.7% voted yes to a strike out of a total 80% turnout. That means that in reality 64% of BA cabin crew support the strike. Added to the fact there are 2,000 BA Cabin Crew who are not members of Unite and therefore would not have voted on a strike you can assume that 45% of workers at BA have voted for a strike.

Reasons they are striking:

Because BA wants to take the long haul cabin crew down one person from 15 to 14 and introduced a 2 year pay freeze (in line with other airlines, when actually BA are already earning 50% more than some)

Introducing a new pay scale for new members set at market rate + 10%, BA cabin crew would still be better off than most other Cabin Crew.

So - Make your own mind up about these strikes.

spurs_nut

Inactive wrote: »

Of course BA ( mis ) Management have played no part in any of this..

An 80% vote for action looks quite overwhelming to me.

Please elaborate on how you think BA have mismanaged!

richardw

Did they see the might of easyJet and Emirates on the horizon?

DaleN

spurs_nut wrote: »

Please elaborate on how you think BA have mismanaged!

People can waffle on all day if they like about whether Management is to blame or cabin crew are to blame, but for me the paying customer, I am not going to book on an airline that is threatening to cancel flights at short notice. I really don't care who is to blame and I'm not interested in their dispute. I want to fly and if they can't take me, I'll go with someone else. It's as simple as that.

What good is a pay rise if your employer folds beneath you? My prediction is that without a buyout or merger, BA will not be flying by the end of this year.

wayoflife

Mr_Lahey wrote: »

(I posted this elsewhere, but would like to add it to this)

I want to lend a few facts to this debate:

BA made a loss of £342m Between April and Dec 2009.

BA cabin crew earn on average twice as much as other airline cabin crew, the lowest wage on long haul is £36,000, in comparison to £14,000 on Virgin.

Now, lets put this into perspective - 80.7% voted yes to a strike out of a total 80% turnout. That means that in reality 64% of BA cabin crew support the strike. Added to the fact there are 2,000 BA Cabin Crew who are not members of Unite and therefore would not have voted on a strike you can assume that 45% of workers at BA have voted for a strike.

Reasons they are striking:

Because BA wants to take the long haul cabin crew down one person from 15 to 14 and introduced a 2 year pay freeze (in line with other airlines, when actually BA are already earning 50% more than some)

Introducing a new pay scale for new members set at market rate + 10%, BA cabin crew would still be better off than most other Cabin Crew.

So - Make your own mind up about these strikes.

I fully take on board all of these comments, but please remember that the media (the main source of information) is politically fuelled one way or another and there are always hidden things within an organisation that arent revealed to the public.

Perhaps the cabin crew down to 14 isnt the final step, perhaps they want to bring it down to 13 or 12, and this step is just the first. In which case BA crews have reasonable cause to be upset. People need to take this into account, as alot of the time it seems the reasons for upset are very small, but its what they lead to in most cases.

Also, the salary fact keeps cropping up. You have to look into this further, £36,000 may seem alot of money, but this is probably after years of negotiations etc. and also some cabin crew may have worked for 20 years to achieve this salary. Things may not have always been that good money wise. Why doesnt someone look at Willy Walsh' salary, or any of the high end executives and bonuses/perks paid out in relation to BA's losses. I havnt looked into this but I recon we would be surprised.

The freeze of pay for 2 years may well have broken a pay deal, that many unions look to agree with the employer. Therefore, if they break this agreement, then what else are they going to break?

Id like to state that I AM NOT AN EMPLOYEE OF BA. NOR DO I KNOW ANYONE WHO WORKS FOR BA. I just feel that both sides of the story should be looked at. And also, to those who say people shoudn't strike, sometimes it is the only option when you have an agressive management.

On the other hand, I too have booked with Virgin, as it takes the worry of strike out of the equasion.

Im sure many comments will follow this!

wayoflife

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article6474165.ece

take a look....

Ita a prime example of how this is political, just look at different papers, then their different slant on things!