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British Airways strike is off for now — so what does that mean?

December 17, 2009

baLooks as if the dreaded British Airways strike won’t be happening — at least not any time soon. The airline this morning won a High Court injunction to prevent a series of Christmas strikes by thousands of its cabin crew.

British Airways had sought the injunction yesterday, challenging the union’s ballot of its 12,500 cabin crew members. BA claimed some workers who had left the company took part in the voting.

A lawyer for the airline told the court the union, Unite, had no regard for its passengers.

With what appears to be withering contempt for the interests and concerns of over one million passengers and those whom they wish to visit over Christmas, Unite has induced strike action over the most important two weeks of the year for the traveling public.

A British Airways spokesman told the Times Online it was “delighted for our customers that the threat of Christmas strike has been lifted by the court.”

Unite was understandably disappointed by the ruling. Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley, Unite’s joint general secretaries, issued the following statement:

While we have never wanted this dispute it is a disgraceful day for democracy when a court can overrule such an overwhelming decision by employees taken in a secret ballot.

What does that mean to you if you are traveling on British Airways? If you haven’t changed your tickets yet, you’re in the clear (as one travel agent told me over the phone, “It’s over!”). If you have changed your tickets, my advice would be to leave everything as is.

This by no means guarantees your flight will leave as scheduled, though. With 9 out of 10 crewmembers reportedly voting to strike, there are going to be some very unhappy employees working on your flight. If they work at all. There’s always the possibility that “sick-outs” (employees calling in “sick” at the same time, effectively grounding selected flights) could wreak havoc on holiday travel plans.

We are by no means out of the woods on this.

The bigger question is: Will BA’s union strike again? Yes, they’ll probably try. So you might consider booking away from BA for now — just to be safe.

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10 comments

  • marissa

    Disgraceful day for democracy?? What, that UNITE cheated and asked members already leaving to vote?
    Disgraceful that in a recession, on the busiest two weeks of the year when people are dying to see their families, people who have jobs deem that the appropriate time to make their case.

  • David H

    Of course unite picked the busiest time of the year to plan a strike. Do you think as many people would care about a strike if it happened during the quietest time of the year? I doubt it?

    Free publicity is good publicity, and we’re giving the Union this in bucket loads. If the Union has a genuine greievance with the airline, then the place to take their dispute is to the airline, not the customers.

  • Carver

    I’m generally neutral towards strikes. I don’t have a philosophical bent either way. But I am disturbed that the workers are showing a complete lack of caring towards the traveling public. Not only does the strike hurt Ba, but it would theaten to completely destroy the Christmas of millions of folks who will be stranded instead of being able to see their loved ones.

  • http://www.majid.info/ Fazal Majid

    Avoiding BA is sound advice at all times, strike or not. Just check the link for them in the right “Customer Contacts” sidebar of this site. Their policy of charging for advance seat assignments is heinous, as are their extortionate rates on the third and following pieces of checked luggage ($140 each).

  • David Z

    Disgraceful day for democracy, eh? That’s their opinion, which obviously not everyone agrees with.

    But…I guess not everyone agrees with democracy. Heh.

  • Ted – Phoenix Justice

    @marissa,

    British Airways claims that union members who are no longer employed by British Airways. It is a “claim” and as yet, unproven.

    @Carver,

    Why should the union members show any type of “caring” toward the traveling public? The traveling public cares about cheap airfares for their holiday travel and don’t care about the attendants unless they need something. I am not siding with the union, but I can understand how they feel about all the pay cuts, longer mandatory hours and such. Management rarely listens unless a strike is called for.

  • marissa

    @ Ted.. They weren’t mandatory paycuts.. it was to do with contracts and whether part time workers should have contracts adjusted to reflect no pay rise. I think if a High Court has judged they ballotted workers who weren’t there, it is pretty safe to say BA had that evidence for the injunction to go ahead.

    I get mad at my boss too for not giving me items I think are due me, but in this economy, who is stupid enough to strike? Seriously.. Margaret Thatcher had the right idea when she curbed the unions. You cannot bring a million people to a standstill, especially on Christmas, and you cannot hold airlines to ransom- especially those who pay your bills, and especially not when thousands of people are without jobs and facing miserable Christmases..

    As an example, the VERY same UNITE- the one who didnt care abt the stranded public trying to get to their families- has gone nuts about aircrew stranded overseas because a Scottish airlines went bankrupt, and now might not be able to go home to their families.

    How come is is one rule for crew members and one rule for public? And BTW, not sure if you have looked up prices to go ANYWHERE over christmas, but cheap it is not… Flights are at a huge premium (example- it is currently over $900 to go NYC to LON- compare that to rates during the year of around $500).

  • Barry Graham

    This is a great day for democracy and a great day for fairness. I have as much contempt for unions as the unions have for customers. I am glad that I work for a company that doesn’t have and doesn’t need unions.

  • Scott

    Boy, gotta love all the elite attitudes. Must be great to go and oppress workers at your companies. I’m sure those of you posting here are the same people that go and scream at various airline people when flights are delayed.

    Without getting into the details of this particular union’s grievance, please take a minute to think about what workers in this industry have had to deal with in the last 10 years. It has not been a fun time, and most of the traveling public could care less about the practically criminal things that executives in this industry have done to workers.

    A strike is a last resort job action, and in the USA, it takes years of negotiation to get to the point where you are allowed to strike, under the Railway Labor Act. If one were to pass all those hurdles, the point is to put pressure on the employer. This is Negotiating 101, and workers are not generally going to risk their jobs and pay unless the treatment by the Elite executives has reached intolerable levels.

    But of course, screw someone else’s working conditions if it might affect you, right?

    The union members are the ones that work with and value the customers. It is the CORPORATIONS that don’t value the customers — only their WALLETS. And if you don’t get that, well, you have a lot to learn.

  • http://www.angrymarks.com/ Kevin Fields

    I am not mad at UNITE for threatening to strike in the middle of the holiday travel season, because I think it is bringing needed attention to their grievances. But I WOULD have been upset if they had actually carried it out. Despite their workplace issues, millions of people are relying on BA’s employees to faithfully carry out the services that their customers have paid for. The union’s first duty in a service industry is to the customers. To shirk that responsibility at this time of year would be heartless and cold, and would not only come back to hurt BA, but all of their employees because now the overall value of the airline, including their products, services AND employees, are worth less in the public eyes.

    So, I’m glad the government did step in and stop a Christmas strike. Like them strike in mid-January if that’s what they wish to do. Ted does bring up a good point, though, regarding how the crew members feel. Perhaps if you’re flying BA for Christmas, you should take a minute and thank every employee for their dedication and sacrifice for the common good of everybody else.

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