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

relaxtwotribes

Astro1 wrote: »

Airlines can also gain competative advantage by differentiating themselves through excellent customer service by employing the best and most qualified people for the job, not bringing in cheap labour with a high turnover.

The world has moved on since then; hence the rise of low-cost carriers. Customers want to pay the lowest price and are prepared to do without frills to get that. And in a recession, BA's premium product is very adversely affected due to it's business model being a very high operating margin. Lower pax numbers leads to much lower operating profit.


This is a battle that management simply has to win and Walsh will see to it. Once this battle is won, watch sweeping changes follow in its wake - that's where the real prize lies for BA.

QuirkyChemistry

Astro1 wrote: »

Being a competative job to get into, I spent years studying firstly for a diploma in International Hotel Management and then a degree in Business (hospitality and tourism), as well as improving my skills through various jobs in 5 star hotels before applying to BA. My question is, don't you think a company that prides itself on excellence should offer a decent salary package to attract the best applicants?

Surely if there is such competition for a job then BA can take the best applicants without offering all the extra benefits? Especially if all applicants are going to such lengths to improve themselves so that they get the job.

no_fat_chicks

robin_banks wrote: »

TRbh I don't know enough to form an informed opinion.

http://www.unitetheunion.com/PDF/078-BA%20flyer%20the%20facts.pdf

The union apparently think they know more about how to run an international airline business than the executives of the airline business do. Which begs the question, why don't they just start up their own?

grahamty

I agree, that unite has not managed to get it's side across. This has mainly been the result of very one sided media reporting . So as a cabin crew member for BA, I will try to give you my take on it.

It all started about 2 years ago (after a year of record profits), when a document called "Operation Columbus" was leaked to the crew community. It contained details of a massive restructuring programme, that would see all current pay, terms and conditions completely eroded and a new fleet of new contract crew simultaneously created. BA had already invested considerable time and money planning the legalities. The crew community and their reps, were rightly up in arms, and a bitter war commenced. For the next 18
months relationships between crew and management reached an all time low, eradicating any trust.

At the same time, the recession kicked in, and Willie Walsh quite rightly stated that BA were in trouble and costs needed to be cut.
Every department was sent targets for cost cutting, with our department receiving a much higher and an unrealistic percentage target. When 90 odd percent of your departments costs are employee costs, this could only mean 2 things ( work harder, and/or pay cut).

Negotiations started, and the union offered huge cuts, which met their target, BA then doubled their target, meaning we were back to square one and a feeling of a serious injustice developed. Negotiations continued, centred around the creation of this "new fleet". The union wanted the new staff to work alongside current staff on the same aircraft, rather than have an independent new fleet (which as portrayed in Columbus would eventually starve us of work, as any lucrative trips would be the first to go to new
fleet). BA did not want this, as it did not fit with their bigger plan!!! crew became very suspicious.

Unfortunately, because BA hadn't imposed any changes crew were unable to fight against "Columbus" and the creation of this new fleet. This all changed in November, when BA decided to take crew members off each aircraft. For the first time we had a legal right to be balloted. Crew knew that if BA could impose this, then what would they impose next? They were already talking about reducing stop overs, mixed long haul/ short haul (some crew would have to move house!), ground duties( when flying hours were exceeded),
totally flexible rostering ( no life outside BA, how can you organise child care? we are after all a predominately female workforce! ),removal of senior crew roles(no more promotion). Basically so many changes were being discussed that our jobs were about to change for ever.

Every crew member is proud to work for BA. We love our company and brand, and want it to be successful, but with the hindsight of knowing your company was planning such a radical restructuring way before the recession kicked in, did little to instill any confidence or trust.

But!!, How do we survive the recession?

The union offered pay cuts and other cutbacks, but at the same time we were watching our leadership squander BA's profits on poor business decisions, such as poor fuel hedging, fines from price fixing, T5 fiasco etc, amounting to 100's of £millions. It has since been quoted that our fuel bill could be half a £billion less this year! Suddenly you start to realise the cuts from crew are fairly small fry, compared to the bigger picture.

We all started getting really suspicious, when Walsh rejected the latest offer from unite, it was less than £10million off his own set target. Why would he reject it? Suddenly it has become crystal clear. None of this dispute has ever really been about cost cutting, it's been about getting his baby "Columbus" through, and the only thing that has and still is standing in his way is the Trade Union. How do you get rid of a trade union? a bit like this:

You hire a firm ( big practice in USA), you create fear, you create a divide in the workforce, you bombard your employees with unrealistic demands, You intimidate and threaten them into submission. You could even get a war chest of £150 million: use it to create an alternative work force, wet lease expensive planes, fly ghost planes around the world, create a war of spin and propaganda and pretend everything is rosy. Please do not believe this spin, 90% of crew are standing united against BA and it's corporate bullying.

All these things have been happening at BA. Many of our trade union reps have already been suspended on trumped up charges, 34 crew suspended in the last month for voicing an opinion on private web sites. Staff travel removed from anyone daring to stand up and say "No Not Me."

Our company is becoming a former shadow of itself. Is this a fair and reasonable way to be treated? I don't consider our union to be overly militant. In 13 years, I have never come close to striking. I never agreed with it before! how has BA pushed me and 90% of it's crew so far? Are we all so unreasonable?

I agree that our pay and Ts & Cs are better than most UK airlines, but they are also very much on par with other European flag carriers! Our average wage is also diminishing rapidly as senior crew are replaced with new crew like myself on much less lucrative contracts. I spoke to two Virgin girls the other day, and the subject turned to pay. When I asked how they survived: One said they had a wealthy boyfriend, the other lived with her parents!! is that right? Unfortunately I have a family and a mortgage.

Please do not judge us for protecting our rights. We are just trying to protect what we've got, and stand up to a nasty bully. We are asking for nothing, we just want a future, and to be able to continue working with pride and professionalism .

mrjoet

Some interesting points raised.

My opinion is that strikes are outdated and serve little purpose.

I think you have to consider that BA are in real trouble as flying is no longer seen as a luxury thing, people now what cheap flights which has seen the likes of Ryanair and Easy Jet become successful and take market share from BA. For BA to survive they need to be able to compete and that means reducing costs. If you look at BA staff's pay compared to other airlines they are payed very well and it's obvious this has to come down in line with other airlines.

It has been estimated that the cost of this strike to BA is £27 million, how do you think this cost is going to be recovered? The BA staff are adding to the problem meaning more redundancies are going to take place.

I think BA crew should should back down and accept that the industry is changing for the worse (for crew). If they carry on striking they will do more harm to their job security than good. Also they are not being forced to work, if the job is really that bad then they can leave and find a new job, but I doubt they will as I suspect it's more to do with trying to hang on to the good old days.

jamespir

i think if you strike then you should be sacked the your job given to those that want to work

globalds

The first bit of independent data I have seen of the strike action.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5175b7da-35ea-11df-aa43-00144feabdc0,s01=1.html

I don't know if I am whole heartedly behind this strike as these aren't low paid food packers ,these are well rewarded and well qualified ,and could probably find alternative work if they don't like the new set up at BA.

The thing is a can't abide Willi walsh .
He personifies all the traits of aggressive bullying management that have missed so many opportunities through the years because they simply can't see a situation where they would compromise to reach a result or see that winning a battle can often be detrimental to the war effort.
He is the Bumbling first world war general who would order his troops to run the Enemy Guns for no advantage and then send the same command out the next day.
To win a strike by breaking the moral of your front line workers is surely a counter productive move.
I don't think any one would see the cabin crew of BA as some militant subversives trying to seize control from the management ..
...But I think the cabin crew feel this was maybe a point to draw a line ..And if that is the case then I would have to respect that .

I haven't chosen to vote as I am not keen on the wording of the choices

PhiltheBear

Astro1 wrote: »

Dear happyrichard,
I am BA crew and I love my job. I make around £22000 per year including basic pay (£13000)allowances, overtime and commission (fluctuates up or down), this means I come home with about £1425 per month, living in London and I have been with BA for just over 4 years....... My question is, don't you think a company that prides itself on excellence should offer a decent salary package to attract the best applicants?

So how is it that Virgin pay a lot less than BA and their staff all seem to be quite happy - compared to most of the sour-faced cabin staff that I meet on BA?

Yes, BA's management want to improve BA - that's their job. But the simple fact is that Unite are going to war over something they have no chance of winning. It's a new world out there - there aren't jobs for life any more so BA's idea of changing its workforce to contract staff is simply following on what most other companies are doing.

When this dispute is settled I fully expect BA to cut even more jobs - but the Unite leadership don't care about that. They just want to prove their muscle. It wont affect the Unite leadership either way. I hope Walsh holds out - and when the Conservatives form the next government (which they will on the back of this sudden rise of militant unionism) that they cripple Unite for good.

It's time Unions got to realise that their members don't deserve anything special and that they need to jump into the 21st century. People like Whelan are dinosaurs.

callum9999

I've seen news reports saying one of the reasons for the strike is a 2 year pay freeze, yet crew are claiming Unite offered to take pay cuts (well the staff did, I'm sure the leaders at Unite will be keeping their high salaries), so which is true?

I'm against the strike by the way. These strikes cost BA millions upon millions of pounds, so even if they did have a valid argument (which I don't think they do), they are just making it worse anyway, no doubt forcing BA to make bigger cuts to make up for it.

DKLS

I cant see the staff doing well out of this in any way, I have spent 5k on flights this year, and have chosen alternatives to BA due to the threat of strikes. I will probably spend another 3-4 K on flights for the rest of the year and again will choose alternative carriers.

Shame really as I have always enjoyed flying with BA, and have found their staff to be great, I simply cant take the risk.