'Who do you support in the BA strike?' poll discussion

Jo_F

Gillian

Could you possibly ask your sister why she and her colleagues at LHR are more deserving than the crews at Gatwick, they are already working to the conditions and seem to be managing ok.

Gilliancares

sulis wrote: »

I am a senior longhaul crew member, over 30 years experience.

I strongly disagree with strike action. We cause distress to our customers, to other BA staff, to our own community.

I have always felt very grateful for my job. I joined BA after a very stressful job, and feel as BA crew we are well treated, well looked after, well paid. For the last 15 years, I have chosen to work part-time. I work a 50% contract; 75% and 33% opportunities also exist. Great opportunity.

33% has not existed for a long time...think you are NOT CREW!

Gilliancares

PhiltheBear wrote: »

So, that's the same training as you'd get for a First Aid at Work certificate? Wow. A waitress with a First Aid Certificate! With the ability to use a fire extinguisher! That's got to be one of the hardest jobs in the world.

Errr no bit more than First Aid actually. As you can't just nose dive into the nearest hospital. Crew have to deal with all sorts of emergencies and have saved many lives on their own. One reason why they like to take on ex Nurses like my sister. But they do Cardiac massage, defib, diagnose Heart Attacks, Strokes etc and they have access to serious drugs - not quite a normal First Aider - good as they are.

Gilliancares

Jo_F wrote: »

Gillian

Could you possibly ask your sister why she and her colleagues at LHR are more deserving than the crews at Gatwick, they are already working to the conditions and seem to be managing ok.

Hi Jo-f are you gatwick? My sister is sitting next to me right now - but she is not happy about me posting - thinks waste of time.. but I want to stand up for her. If you look up City Flyer ( was Brymon + 2 others) on wikipedia you will get lots of info on Gatwick too and it's history. Gatwick was many many airlines that BA bought B cal, Dan Air etc it was disastrous as so many different aircraft, different crews, different ground staff all working differently. They chopped their salary and did not get much support from heathrow staff - after all they were other airlines... SO neither support each other. They do not cope very well at all - on a take home wage of £900 - £1100 a month - the majority work in Bars, restaurants and supermarkets on their days off.

ThinkingOfLinking

I am totally against the strike and think those striking should simply be sacked and replaced with the thousands of willing people who'd love 30K odd PA plus international travel...I know it's very competitive to get into this job so I think they should just be grateful, especially as they get paid more than nurses and they're being even more insensitive given how bad the jobs market currently is.

Jo_F

Gilliancares wrote: »

Hi Jo-f are you gatwick? My sister is sitting next to me right now - but she is not happy about me posting - thinks waste of time.. but I want to stand up for her. If you look up City Flyer ( was Brymon + 2 others) on wikipedia you will get lots of info on Gatwick too and it's history. Gatwick was many many airlines that BA bought B cal, Dan Air etc it was disastrous as so many different aircraft, different crews, different ground staff all working differently. They chopped their salary and did not get much support from heathrow staff - after all they were other airlines... SO neither support each other. They do not cope very well at all - on a take home wage of £900 - £1100 a month - the majority work in Bars, restaurants and supermarkets on their days off.

Nope, I am not at Gatwick, but, I do know a lot about aviation, and more than I ever wanted to know about BA, I know about the amalgamation of the other airlines, but they all come under the same company, and the crews at Gatwick made the choice to accept the new working conditions, and from what I am hearing, are not at all impressed with the LHR crews.

I would love to be forced to cope on £1100 a month, that is far in excess of what I currently earn, I have just had to take a 50% cut in my supervisor's rate of pay with my job, in order to ensure the company survives the current downturn in business.

Has no one actually thought that they could use this as a bargaining chip? If they take this now to help out the company, once the company is back on it's feet they have a payrise of x amount?, or a reinstatment of that other crew member on each flight?

The union have another agenda here, and it's not helping the members at BA/LHR.

MrShed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8593516.stm

A very interesting news article.

Interesting that Cabin crew according to Unite earn £15,000 - but for 900 hours flying time a year.

Er....900 hours?? Thats (roughly) half of what I do a year, and even less than teachers.

Pro rata, that gives them a basic salary of about £30k....

PhiltheBear

Gilliancares wrote: »

Errr no bit more than First Aid actually. As you can't just nose dive into the nearest hospital. Crew have to deal with all sorts of emergencies and have saved many lives on their own. One reason why they like to take on ex Nurses like my sister. But they do Cardiac massage, defib, diagnose Heart Attacks, Strokes etc and they have access to serious drugs - not quite a normal First Aider - good as they are.

Heart attacks and strokes - part of a normal First Aid syllabus. Defib - automatic machine. Cardiac massage? Since when have they been trained to cut open a chest and massage a heart? Serous drugs? I don't think so - medical regulations don't allow it. There are a very small number of drugs they are allowed to prescribe and use. Even paracetamol isn't prescribable by cabin crew. That's just the law as it stands.

It's basic first aid with a (very) few add ons. Add that to their ability to serve meals and spot where the smoke comes from in the event of a fire and I'm afraid it still hardly qualifies them as special.

nondom_3

British Airways seems to have the worst service of any of the airlines. I loathe flying BA. It seems to me they were propped up for too long by the government and the generous allocation of slots at Heathrow. Let them go out of business and make way for better airlines.

A.Jones

PhiltheBear wrote: »

It's basic first aid with a (very) few add ons. Add that to their ability to serve meals and spot where the smoke comes from in the event of a fire and I'm afraid it still hardly qualifies them as special.

They are special. They have to be able to walk backwards in a straight line pulling a trolley. Although probably less than half can do that without bashing into people.