BA strike ballot begins
Saturday, 01 Mar, 2011
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Around 10,000 British Airways crew will be asked to start voting today on whether to take strike action, a move which could affect the public’s Easter holiday travel.
This is the fourth time in two years that British Airways’ cabin crew have been balloted by the union Unite. However, the last ballot earlier this year was declared illegal after BA management called in the Electoral Reform Society.
A campaign of industrial action started back in 2009 after staff became unhappy with the carrier’s cost cutting but the battle soon turned uglier as disagreements over perks and union member dismissals arose.
Last year there were 22 days of strike action.
Now Unite says “systematic anti-union activity” is going on, which is stopping the two sides from arriving at an agreement.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “For the fourth time in two years we are forced to ballot for strike action at BA to defend our cabin crew members.
“This has never been about pay or about costs – indeed peace would cost BA not one penny. This is about our members’ determination to stop a bullying employer.
“BA may think that by harassing its workers it can crush them, but that is not how to secure enduring peace at the airline.”
But BA is confident it will be business as usual for many of its passengers even if the strikes, likely to be in April, go ahead.
The carrier has operated full services at Gatwick and London City through past industrial action and says its long-haul schedule from Heathrow will remain in tact.
BA employed 500 “mixed fleet” crew last year and plans to boost that amount this year. The mixed fleet staff work across short and long-haul flights and rise through the ranks not through seniority but through performance. They also work on different types of contract to regular crew, with altered pay and conditions.
The ballot ends on March 28.
by Dinah Hatch
Dinah
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