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

A.Jones

nondom wrote: »

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.

10 of my colleagues were booked on a flight last week that was cancelled, and were late for an important trade exhibit, as they had to rebook on Eurostar (at significantly higher cost). We have a policy at work now of not using BA unless no other airline flies the same route, and even then we have to look at nearby airports (within 200 miles). We usually get hire cars the other end any way, so it is not too hard to avoid BA.

voiceofreason

Fluffi wrote: »

I'm fed up with the way the current management panda to the unions unreasonable demands every time they threaten a strike.

I bet you'd like to give them a proper black eye, wouldn't you?

gladtosave

My brother in law was a pilot with Sabena in Belgium (state owned - they thought it would never go bust). Several years ago the personnel went on strike as they did not agree with saving messures. Guess what: the whole company went bankrupt and thousands of people were without a job. And where were they all going to find a new job? It's not as if the airline business is doing so well that there are loads of available positions in case BA would cease to exist. Maybe it's best to be happy with what you have and not risk it all but that's something people on strike might forget. They cause the company lots of damage (in this case financial and image) and the end result might be worse than what they started out with in the first place.
Completely beside that point: I hate it when ordinary people are being kept ransom by strikers be it railway, airline, ... if you want to go on strike, fine, that's your right, but don't inconvenience ordinary people who have nothing to do with your strike and pay for the services your company is offering (and in many cases depend on those services to make their own living).

BlindCheek

I agree entirely with happyrichard.

As someone who has been working on 10% reduced pay for the past 11 months for a company that has not lost several hundred million pounds in the last couple of years I find it hard to have sympathy with the cabin crew. To further compound my feelings I am getting married at the end of April and had been looking forward to a BA flight to take me, my bride to be and my family to meet my fiancee's family half-way as they are all flying in from Australia. If we are unable to fly due to the strike then while our insurance will pay for our flights and holiday it will not compensate for the mental anguish of missing our big day with both of our families present from either side of the world. Something which we may not be able to achieve again due to collective economic constraints.

stingyC

I dont agree with strike action by BA staff, Post Office staff, Unison etc. Its been confirmed in this thread that other airlines pay less/worse conditions etc. I fly regularly and in my experience BA service is only on a par with Easyjet and Ryanair. I cant justify the extra cost to get a free meal. 90%+ of the time, staff on other airlines are more courteous (KLM/Etihad/Virgin/Thai/Gulf/AA/United/Qatar/CSA Czech/TAM etc etc). A smile costs nothing, and its RUDE to ignore a customer waiting while you chat about some inane rubbish/moan about your job openly.

Times change, jobs are not for life and there has to be some personal responsibility. If I dont like changes in my job/pay/conditions, I look for something else instead of punishing the customer. I suggest if you dont like it, move on. I sincerely doubt BA will have any trouble replacing staff even after all this bad publicity.

I fully understand why employers are so keen to take on migrant workers. They work for the hours they are paid, are polite and dont have this entitlement expectation so common in the UK these days.

PHIL_GIBBS

william wrote: »

striking is like when kids have a tantrum to get their own way.

if your on a flight and have to wait for a drink or food you
whould have a bigger tantrum than your kids.i don't work for ba but as a unionn member i have got sympathy for standing
their ground to make sure we enjoy our flights.don't foget
the strike is not about money only staff cuts.

Jomo

PHIL_GIBBS wrote: »

if your on a flight and have to wait for a drink or food you
whould have a bigger tantrum than your kids.i don't work for ba but as a unionn member i have got sympathy for standing
their ground to make sure we enjoy our flights.don't foget
the strike is not about money only staff cuts.

We are in a recession, a lot of businesses have made cuts one way or another.

My main gripe over this is this fact....everyone has no option but to grin and bear these hard times.

Sorry, no support or sympathy from me.

brenda10

British Airways cabin crew are too well paid. Ordinary people earn nothing near to what they earn.
Willie Walsh do not give in to the cabin crews selfish demands.

leathersofa

The trouble with a lot of the above is that there are two different issues here. 1. workers' rights vs management's rights; and 2. the involvement of innocent customers. A lot fewer of the general public would object to unions vs management if the chosen weapon were not making victims of innocent, ie uninvolved, customers. It is completely unreasonable of union people, including members, to accuse of 'selfishness' those who object to being used as a hostage in the battle between the two sides.

It is not, repeat not, selfish to expect to get the service that one has paid for, and it is not selfish to complain if one doesn't because one side or the other has chosen to deprive an innocent customer of their due. And union enthusiasts who scream insults at these customers are only digging a deeper hole for themselves, in that they need public support, which in this case it is very evident they don't have (see Martin's poll result).

And why don't they have it? NOT because the dispute hasn't been explained, but because the vast majority of the public have suffered in the recession in some way and have little sympathy for people who seem to think that they are somehow magically immune to similar suffering. My own son has just lost his job because the company is closing branches - he works in the entertainment industry and people just aren't spending as much as they used to on entertainment. He hasn't done anything wrong but he's still out of a job. It is how things are at present, and anyone who doesn't get that and still thinks they can call people 'selfish' or 'stupid' for not sympathising with their own rather tenuous case is not the sharpest tool in the box. It's called real life.

ff999

sindbad wrote: »

BA pilots earn a minimum of £10000/ months, they should help BA in their "fight for survival" and accept Ryanair wages. so should the workers at Waterside, ( BA HQ that comes complete with waitrose, gym, massage during lunch breaks, numerous cafes etc )
BA has the highest number of non uniform staff out of any of its British and European counterparts.
there is plenty of room to save money there.
The proof? all those volunteers "stike breakers", how can they be away from their position for 3 weeks (lengh of the training it takes to be a volunteer cabin crew) and for covering the strike days and they are even flying as we speak to lock the strikers out from coming back to work. Are they not missed by their colleague at their original department? how come BA is still running without them?

I thanked this post as its given me one of the biggest laughs during the whole strike, and pretty much sums up just how far up into a dark place *some* cabin crew have stuck their heads.

BA HQ that comes complete with waitrose, gym, massage during lunch breaks, numerous cafes etc

I know this is going to come a devastaing shock to you but Waitrose is a supermarket. Along the lines of, but smaller than the Marks and Spencers in T5, wher crew are based. so no difference there then.
The gym is available *at a cost* to all BA staff. ALL STAFF..
Massage during lunch breaks - that's either the hairdressers, (but there's no massage there) who moved from compass centre, where the crew were based, or the chiropractor, or physiotherapist, who visits for people to PAY THEM OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKET for treatment. No subsidy by BA, and also available to ALL BA STAFF.
Numerous cafes. this is an old chestnut 'All those staff at HQ sitting around drinking Lattes'. The building, when it opened was designed for 2500 people. It now houses 5000. It's full. Look at the people drinking coffee and you'll see lap tops and note books. They're having meetings in the coffee area as the meeting rooms are full.

And you ask how to do those staff manage to disappear for three weeks and not do their day job? Some of them are doing their day job in their spare time. Some of them have handed their job over to colleagues, temporarily, and now the colleague is now working longer hours to cover. Or the day job has been parked temporarily if it is not time critical. There's no overtime, or time off in lieu, no pay rises, no bonuses. it's just being done. And that is after some departments were cut by 40% last year, with staff leaving on redundancy.
When was the last time you worked an unpaid minute?
If you're in any doubt about any of this, feel free to PM me, and on one of your days off, you can spend the day in HQ, just to see for yourself. I worked at least one day last week for free, you can do the same.

Edit: and no, I'm not a manager, and never have been, but am in my 3rd decade in BA, and am ex crew.
Edit No 2 Massage during lunch breaks - what the hell is a lunch break?!