BA workers approve holiday strike
A strike by check-in staff would cause chaos
British Airways workers will strike for 24 hours during the August Bank Holiday weekend unless a pay row is settled.
The GMB action is threatened for one of four days: 27, 28, 29 or 30 August and is set to cause chaos over one of the year’s busiest periods for travel.
The strike will mainly affect Heathrow and Gatwick and is due to run for 24 hours from 0430 BST (0330 GMT).
Six UK airports could be hit, however, if more BA employees vote to strike in a TGWU ballot due later this week.
Olive branch
Union officials are currently working on a new proposal, that they say could avert the strike if it is approved by BA.
Allan Black, a negotiator for the GMB trade union, is to contact other worker representatives to discuss the new plan.
Profits are up, employee costs are down and will continue to fall as our people accept and adapt to new situations
Brendan Gold
TGWU
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BA strike would dent profits
“If the other unions are prepared to adopt this position, it will be raised with the company as a way of resolving the dispute,” he said.
“We have no interest in closing down British Airways and inconveniencing the public.
We are doing everything we possibly can to resolve this dispute.”
BA said both sides should return to the negotiating table.
“We are still talking with the trade unions and remain keen to avert any threat of a strike through negotiation,” the company said in a statement.
“During this process, talk of strike dates is unhelpful and unwelcome and we urge the trade unions to pull back from such a damaging course of action.”
Clash
One of the stumbling blocks in the failed round of talks was BA’s desire to agree a three-year settlement, Mr Black said.
About 3,000 check-in staff, based mainly at Heathrow and Gatwick, voted in favour of industrial action. The GMB said it also has members at airports in Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Aberdeen who are backing the move.
Later this week the Transport & General Workers Union (TGWU) is due to announce the result of a ballot among 8,000 BA staff. If they vote in favour of a strike, disruption would be much more widespread, with a total of six airports across the UK affected.
Trade union Amicus is also involved in the dispute, but has not yet decided to ballot the 800 BA staff that it represents.
The TGWU has published new figures which it said estimated the cost of settling the dispute would be £10m a year.
It said average wages of BA staff had increased by well below the rate of inflation, while profits had soared.
“These figures show what our members know in plain terms – that they have delivered for BA,” said national officer Brendan Gold.
“Profits are up, employee costs are down and will continue to fall as our people accept and adapt to new situations,” he said. “Their contribution must be recognised.”
‘Fair’ pay offer
The unions have rejected a pay offer worth 8.5% over three years, or 10.5% if the money did not count towards pensions.
They say basic earnings for baggage handlers are about £14,000 a year, while check-in and administration staff, many of whom are women, earn between £2,000 and £3,000 less.
But BA director of operations Mike Street has said the pay offer was “fair and reasonable given the challenges facing our company”.
He claimed the company’s employment costs were the highest in Europe.
Check-in workers staged an unofficial walkout at Heathrow Airport last summer over working conditions, which left 100,000 passengers stranded and cost BA £40m.
By: EAL_KING - 16th August 2004 at 22:30
thats what staff at british airways said on tv.
By: MSR777 - 16th August 2004 at 21:34
I fear you could be right!
By: TRIDENT MAN - 16th August 2004 at 21:31
I fear this could spell the end of BA!!!
By: MSR777 - 16th August 2004 at 21:23
Sorry Comet but ramming housebricks into peoples skulls solves nothing! But thats not to say I disagree with your sentiments. As I posted on a similar thread, the BA management have to stay firm on this one, I also stated, as T5 has here, that no one in this industry is forced to stay put. What we are seeing here is the manifestation of the effect that LoCo carriers have had on the airline and handling industry as a whole, driving down the pay and conditions of ground staff throughout the industry. It led to me being made redundant twice in 6 Months! and there have been many, many more like me. These unions and the staff involved have to get real here. BA and a few other full sevice carriers are only now beginning to turn the tide, in my opinion its pure suicide to be even contemplating this action now. I think that these unions are wontonly mis-leading their members and could very well be in the process of escorting their members out of jobs. IF THERE ARE ANY BA GROUND STAFF MEMBERS ON THIS FORUM-FOR GOODNESS SAKE THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE DOING! It won’t be your Union reps that lose their jobs and you will playing directly into the hands of the LoCo moguls in bringing BA to its knees and thereby driving things down further. My sympathies go out to the poor old traveller…you know..the sucker who buys the tickets and pays the wages, I have sympathy too with the staff, but now is not the time, and if things are really that bad then do as I did and move on!
By: T5 - 16th August 2004 at 20:24
I agree 100% with Comet.
One thing that does annoy me immensely is that these members of staff knew what they were going to be paid before being taken on to work for the airline. Why is it that they have to kick up a fuss now?
There are plenty of people who need or want jobs in airports – myself included. Why not sack these moreons and get a whole new batch of staff in. That way, their stupid striking action would completely backfire and they’d all lose their jobs! :p
By: Comet - 16th August 2004 at 18:37
From someone who is booked to fly with an airline handled by BA – those pieces of scum want their bloody heads bricking!! (By that I mean they should have whole house bricks rammed into their skulls – it would be a bloody improvement!) 😡 😡
(And I do not apologise to anyone for posting those views – that is mild compared to what I would want to say.)
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August 16, 2004 at 5:12 pm