BA turns up the heat on union
LONDON – British Airways has warned its 12,000 cabin crew that they will be permanently stripped of their travel perks if they go on strike.
Telegraph Online said that as a new ballot for industrial action get underway, the UK-flag carrier turned up the pressure on crew by threatening to remove the coveted travel privileges from any staff who took part in a walkout.
All staff receive 90 percent discounts on air fares for themselves and their nominated family or friends as long as seats are available. After five years service, a crew member will also be eligible for one set of free tickets to anywhere on the BA network.
The warning came in a letter from Bill Francis, BA’s head of cabin crew.
He added that any staff who downed tools would also lose their pay and associated days off for any trips they missed.
BA said it could withdraw the perk because it was a “non-contractual benefit granted at the company’s discretion”.
The carrier’s threat drew an angry response from the cabin crew’s union, Unite.
Len McClusky, the union’s assistant general secretary, said, “There is no end to BA’s pettiness. Whoever dreamt up this scheme is presumably trying to inflame the situation.
“Managers who are macho generally aren’t mucho. More talking and less posturing will resolve this dispute.”
The union angered BA by calling a 12-day strike just before Christmas that would have disrupted one million passengers.
It was called off only after BA went to the High Court and won an injunction to stop the walkout on the grounds that the ballot had wrongly included votes from crew who were leaving the airline.
Source: The Telegraph
Ian Jarrett
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