British Airways cabin crew have decided to take industrial action
THOUSANDS of Islanders could face Christmas travel misery as a result of a British Airways cabin crew strike.
The Unite union announced yesterday that its members had voted in favour of industrial action between 22 December and 2 January 2010 in a dispute over pay and conditions.
There are ten British Airways flights between Jersey and Gatwick each day during the festive period – which means that 12,000 passengers could be affected.
Islanders seeking to travel to the UK and beyond face the prospect of having their travel plans ruined.
Others looking forward to welcoming family and friends have an uncertain wait, while hotels with Christmas bookings will be keeping their fingers crossed that guests will arrive.
BA local manager Bob Wickings said that he was awaiting news, like everyone else. He said that anyone who had booked a ticket through the BA shop in Jersey would be contacted if their travel plans needed to be rearranged.
Article posted on 15th December, 2009 - 2.59pm
56 Article Comments
Now can we please leave our teachers (whose proposed strike is more to do with the removal of their right to negotiate) alone given that the BA crew get paid way more than their counterparts working for other airlines?!
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Selfish, selfish, selfish BA Cabin crew. Because of this i doubt they will even have jobs this time next year.
I’m due to travel home on BA for Christmas on the 23rd after working in India for two months. I dread the thought of having curry christmas day because of a group of short-sighted individuals who cannot grasp the damage they are causing.
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How futile. The unions will be the victim of their own success!
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The BA staff are as stupid as the Royal Mail employees who are determined to drive their businesses into the ground. If our states workers were private sector they would also qualify, the business is heammoraging money and cuts need to be made, look for another job if not happy, don’t destroy the company.
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AN OPEN LETTER TO BA CABIN CREW
I am a BA gold card holder who has crossed the Atlantic three times a month – exclusively with BA – for the last 11 years. Not Virgin and not any other carrier; I fly solely with BA. I have done this principally because of the superior cabin service.
In return for my loyalty to BA and contributing to the prosperity and job security of its cabin staff, I (and all other BA passengers) are now being rewarded by this kick in the balls.
I fully respect your right to strike – that is unequivocal. But deciding to call what may be a twelve-day strike over the Christmas/New Year period will cause very severe damage to your employer (BA) and also you, the pilots, the engineers and all ground staff.
This near-mortal blow to BA will cause collateral economic damage not only to your colleagues in the UK but also to the staff who support you in the outstations as well. They earn far less than you in many instances, and you are jeopardising their livings by your action.
Your heretofore loyal and regular customers (like me, with 27 long-haul flights with your source of income and security so far this year) will now have to take into account the risks involved with booking travel with BA. Will the strike-ridden UK flag carrier be flying, or will some self-serving, drunk with power, union berk bring out the entire cabin work force again and again on some pretext or other?
I have been forced by your actions to rebook my LHR-LAX flights for January and the first half of February with other carriers. I cannot afford to take the risks of you and your union organisers continuing with this benighted folly, the very real possibility of your management declaring a lock-out or even BA being forced to declare bankruptcy. Who knows – I might even prefer those foreign carriers’ service and reliability and remove all future business from BA?
I am not the only gold card customer in the world; there are tens of thousands of us. If 10% of BA’s frequent flyers decide to cut their losses, BA will be forced to fire staff.
And you, my friends will have sawn off the branch on which you so complacently sit.
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It is disgraceful, B.A. are in serious financial do,do; the employees if they wish to keep their well paid jobs,cheap travel and other perks should not bite the hand that feeds them, that being the customer. Probably a million men, women and children will have their Christmas ruined and loose their hard earned cash. Of course commie bastards do not believe in Christmas. The hairs on the back of my neck have risen, what is our world coming to. Maybe B.A. will go bankrupt and the employees can then ponce off the hard working tax payer for their sustenance.
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Well, Flybe must be loving every minute of this
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If they had waited a few more weeks till after the busiest time of the year,they would have more respect by the public,instead of causing chaos for passengers.
Makes me wonder if they will still be with us in the future
I hope so still prefer them to the others we have on offer.
“Britain,s favourite airline” live up to your once proud name!
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I’m travelling back to the island from Scotland via Gatwick on BA this Friday, which gives me some time before strike action (though snow preicted in London this Friday = bad times) but the return journey I’m worried about. I return to Edinburgh on January 9th which will be a week after the strike ends. I can’t imagine the damage that will be done to this good airline during those 12 days – the affects of this dispute will take a lot longer than a week to repair.
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Frequent flyer has said it all. I have never flown with BA since they pulled the heathrow route. Used to fly Australia/London and anywhere else……not anymore!
Anti BA
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Well if they strike i hope we will receive a re-fund and a free ticket for the inconveince caused! had to fork out another £140.00 through another well known local airline who are bound to cause chaos themselves as we all know their reliability! Would love to see some new airlines operating out of Jersey. A well known Irish low cost carrier would be a god send but he knows only too well not to fly here because of the local costs.
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The world is now a very small place to jet to one place or another. In my view BA has always been such a reliable carrier and the cabin crew second to none with such polite service. I do not know the extent of the pay conditions. I know that my husband is due to come home on the 23rd dec for Xmas to be with me and our children. I nearly lost him two years ago to cancer, so altough BA can hurt us if they go ahead with the strike, nothing is as important as knowing he is still alive and can and will make it home to his family for Christmas by what ever means.
I sincerely hope other people caught up in the BA dispute will find a way to be where ever they need to be and have a Merry Christmas & Very happy New Year.
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If this strike goes ahead, I almost hope that BA goes under because of it, and that people recognise that it’s failure is down to this union’s action; maybe then people with start to view unions as the bullies they are.(maybe not the members, but the unions as a whole through their leaderships)
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Is this not called biting the hand that feeds you.
BA could fold over this
Cabin Staff need to understand that the industry has changed over the years. Most passengers now just wish to get from A to B .Flying is no longer ‘A big event’ and minimal cabin service is all that is required in World Traveller (otherwise known as coach or economy!)
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I’ve spoken to a few cabin crew over the last couple of days – and they have the opinion that the vast majority of staff have been hoodwinked by the unions – yes they voted for action – but thought an overtime ban was the plans.
Looks like the lefties have done it again !
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Frequent Flyer, do you really think some 400 transatlantic flights have been a good thing for this planet that we’re all trying to live on? Do you really have to be there in person – can you not try videoconferencing?
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Iam not supporting the strike but don,t blame unions for everything , all companies are good at raking in the money whie times are good but reluctantly look after their workforces who make all their cash for them . If it was,nt for previous union actions none of you would be able to afford a flight and more than likely not have paid holidays let alone sick pay and other perks , think back to the good old days with sweatshops and the rich having everything and everyone else with nothing.i feel sorry for all who stand to lose their holidays but the term bitting the hand that feeds cuts both ways as without the unions most workers would be still in poverty, you need someone to fight the greedy buggers.
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@ jeff #17
It’s probably true that without some of the work of unions historically workers conditions may not be as good as they are today, but you can’t use the good deeds of the past to hide the bad that is being done now. Maybe it’s time to realise that employers, and employment laws, are very different today, and unions are no longer needed.
It would appear from what I’ve read elsewhere that the BA staff are very well paid comparatively within their industry and with other service industries. It would also appear that some cabin staff have agreed pay rises of up to 7% this year and next, while other departments within BA have accepted pay cuts in recognition of the companies financial problems.
Their industrial action seems ill-thought out to me, let alone justified!
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Dont ever feel sorry for the likes of BA as they have been ripping off everyone in jersey for years , big companies have always looked upon jersey as a captive market and price accordingly. If they went under i,m sure the next gang of crooks would be lining up to do the same. Luckily i moved away to aussie where they have something called competition which jersey is crying out for. once again i do feel sorry for those who might lose their holidays or flights but i,ll put money on it there will be no strike anyway as their workers will not really want to hurt their customers
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Amazing how quiet our normally vociferous left wing posters are on this thread.
Adrian ?
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It’s easy for those in good-bargaining positions to criticize strike action (all categories included) but as Jeff says “workers have the right to strike” (and also the duty on some occasions). And if a strike has any chance of success (which I don’t think this one has) it must be implemented when it hurts most…like now.
To BA Customer Services
BA is and will always be my first choice, even though this strike has forced me to change my holiday plans…and ‘yes’, it’s rather annoying, but not as annoying as having to listen to a long recorded message only to hear that all BA phone lines are busy.
Please BA, what’s wrong with the ‘Busy’ tone?
Disgusted 16.
Very Interesting observation! Still, there are times when videoconferences simply cannot replace ‘being there’. I work online, but there are times when I (and I imagine many others) have no choice but to ‘fly’ to work.
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This is the downfall of the unions in UK. Thanks Unite for making a mockery of the right of collective bargaining.
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How arrogant the BA staff are in these times of recession and 2.5 million unemployed in the UK.
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Jeff 17 is right, back in historic times though. The unions became the bad boys from 1970 on; Red Robbo, Scargill, etc and it took the Iron Lady to put them in their place.
BA have done this action at the cruellest possible time, designed to cause as much anguish and heartbreak as possible for those travelling to see their loved ones.
I hope the tears of those would be travellers, wash away all future hopes and dreams of the strikers.
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Ah yes the Iron Lady who put a generation out of work so that Britain could import cheap coal from Colombia. And why was this coal cheaper than the UK coal? Simple it was mined by amongst others 14 year old children without the same standards of safety etc as that which was employed in the UK mines. Its good to save isn’t it?
What does Britain produce now? In real terms very little. Is it any wonder it is going down the pan?
Nevermind you people who don’t think there is any need for unions. Just remember this, once they are gone there will be no one to look after your interests.
Nevermind people will get what they deserve. No use whinging as it will be too late.
I find it absolutely amazing that every time there are problems at a company a union is blamed. It is good to see such confidence in the management to get things right all the time.
People slagging unions should look at history and see where you would be if it wasn’t for certain heroic figures who dragged Britain out of the dark ages. May I suggest you look at the causes of the 1926 Great Strike.
Here is a excellent unbiased link for you to look at.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_United_Kingdom_general_strike
As far as I am concerned we are going back to these days.
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Disgusted (16)
Video conferencing is all well and good, but try as I may, I just can’t undertake surgery from a desk in in my Grouville home. It’s a hands-on thing, you know.
Do try to think outside the box, Disgusted.
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I thought the strike had been ruled illegal already (?) and, therefore, another vote will need to be taken. Even if the result is the same the notification period would still place any strike after Christmas.
Will still affect some but at least others will get a less stressful Christmas.
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“…Just remember this, once they are gone there will be no one to look after your interests…”
I look after my own interests, I’ve never been, or wanted to be in a union.
“…I find it absolutely amazing that every time there are problems at a company a union is blamed…”
Because it’s often the union causing the problem. In this instance the union were fighting to protect a salary structure that had their members earning apparently double, or close to, their counterparts on other airlines.
Nobody forces a person to work, if they feel they can get a better deal alsewhere they should leave and let somebody have the job they don’t want to do.
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At least the british courts saw sense…..the real losers here would have been the paying public and that it grossly unfair!
….all on a day when a scottish airline suddenly went bust with 800 staff losing their jobs and 4500 passengers stranded abroad.
It puts it into all into perspective really doesn;y it and hopefully both Unite and the BA cabin crew who voted for the strike will see sense and realise how lucky they are to have a job at all…..let a lone a relatively well paid job for the industry!
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The best long term result for all travelers will be if BA goes bust and it slots are sold by the liquidator to other more customer focused airlines.
If BA does go bust, these overpaid waiters/waitresses will:
1/lose their jobs and be unable to get a similar job that comes close to the salary and perks that they currently enjoy.
2/Get the minimum statutory redundancy package.
3/Get a very small portion of the final salary pension they are expecting, (as the company’s pension schemes have huge deficits and are legally obliged to give priority to existing pensioners)
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J Lamborrari and maybe its the incompetence or arrogance of the management to blame on many occasions? What then? Sack the management?
What people need to realise is that much of which we take for granted now as part of the work package was put in place by the hard work and sacrifice of unions and their members.
As I have said previously it is easy to under cut British jobs like in coal mining when these jobs are done by children in foreign lands. I see you have made no comment on these issues.
“Nobody forces a person to work”
I have to laugh at this comment. As you well know the only people who have a choice in this are those who do not need to work, i.e. the rich who often employ those unlucky enough not to have the choice.
How many do you honestly think would work if they weren’t forced to do so? I would say a darn sight fewer than are at present.
As per pay and conditions these have also be fought for over the years. People have bills to pay they can’t exactly go to their banks and say sorry but my wages have halved so I’m only going to pay you half my mortgage from now on.
I will be expecting those at the top to lead by example. If its good enough for the workers it good enough for them.
No one wants to strike at the end of the day and resolution is a much better way to run a business for everyone concerned including the management.
At the end of the day I am sure that the management will find a way to spike the unions guns, so I wouldn’t be getting too worried just yet.
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@ Adrian # 31
“…Sack the management?…”
Absolutely; and this does happen.
“…What people need to realise…”
People do realise this I think, I don’t think there’s anybody arguing otherwise. Just because certain actions were right for their time in history, doesn’t make them right today.
“…I see you have made no comment on these issues…”
What comment would you like me to make? I think it’s a shame that those countries don’t properly protect their children.
“…I have to laugh at this comment…”
I should’ve been clearer, that nobody is forced to work in a specific job.
“…People have bills to pay they can’t exactly go to their banks and say sorry but my wages have halved so I’m only going to pay you half my mortgage from now on…”
You could try, many lenders would be more willing to negotiate for reduced repayments when a borrower finds themselves in financial hardship… you could even compare it to a business saying to it’s workforce “We’re in financial hardship, would you be prepared to make a concession to keep the business going and you your jobs?” Of course if the workforce turns round and says ‘No’ everybody loses.
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Adrian
(1) No need to sack incompetent management they will go bust anyway
(2)
“put in place by the hard work and sacrifice of unions and their members”
What, like the fact unions negotiate a rate for all, the lazy earn the same as the hard workers and there is no way for management to reward them.
(3)British coal mining went to the wall because like you the unions could not see the writing on the wall.
British miners were competing with north sea gas and massive “efficient mechanised open cast coal mines in foreign countries who were employing adults not kids. British, deep coal mines were labour intensive dinosaurs with unionised employees who thought they had jobs for life and could ransom the country.
(4)
Nobody is forced to work for one employer. One may withdraw ones labour at any time and work for another employer or indeed become self employed.
Its the employer who may have his life’s work tied up in a company that could be forced into liquidation by 1960ish union blackmail.
(5)The company I work for has instigated salary cuts this year in an attempt to not have redundancies and come out of the recession with the colective skills of our employees intact.
Top management 20% cut, line managers 10% cut. hourly paid 5% cut, no enforced redundancies.
(6)
“No one wants to strike” of course not, if an employer gives in to every union wage claim the company will go bust, but no one will be on strike.
-7
spike the unions guns
What the guns they are holding to all our heads.
Adrian you really need to look at the calendar its nearly the second decade of the 3rd millennium you can no longer demand what you want, you have to earn it. Ask yourself who are the best payers, you will find they are the non union companies who cherry pick the good workers by paying over the rate the unions have blackmailed their employers to pay the lazy BA~~A~DS
At the end of the day I am sure that the management will find a way to spike the unions guns, so I wouldn’t be getting too worried just yet.
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Jerry (24) is totally deluded if he really thinks that:
“BA have done this action at the cruellest possible time, designed to cause as much anguish and heartbreak as possible for those travelling to see their loved ones”.
Excuse me? Does Jerry really think that BA engineered this strike threat?
The instigators of the now thankfully aborted strike were BASSA, the British Airways Stewards and Stewardess’s Association, a quaintly-named division of UNITE the Trade Union.
These neanderthal throwbacks to Trotskyite communism were caught with their pants around their ankles in the High Court when it was proved that they had balloted former BA employees who had taken voluntary redundancy.
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Pinkos who will ruin us all with their actions. Do they not know there is a ression on.They are putting thousands of jobs at risk
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To ALL the ‘This is Jersey’ fans
Well, looks like I’ll be going on holiday after all, so I’d just like to say a very big “THANK YOU” for your amusing posts and company over the last few months and a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL , especially to:
Adrian, Bella, B S Deluxe, Darren, Deputy Dog, Deputy Pitman (are you two related?), Disheartened, J Lamborrari, Leah Holmes, Lula, Magnolia Man, Michael Neil, Mogit, PJG, Rosemary Bead, Warren and so many many others…God Bless and protect you all, that is, if you believe in God…and if you don’t “ALL THE BEST” to you, your loved ones and your pets….and who knows, I might even bump into you on the slopes…
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I’ll just say don’t tar all unions with the same brush. I’ve worked for a charity that required me to get to know the Regional Secretaries of a number of unions and some of these guys are not only extremely smart they genuinely want to find a middle ground, and they are often very caring people.
Although it is always the cries for more money that make the headlines, Unions carry out a lot of work helping retrain people who are being made redundant, helping make workplaces safer, and they often spend a lot of time fighting in court for the rights of those who were made terminally ill due to management’s negligence in the workplace.
Some of this is done in overtime and isn’t paid.
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#36
Bron Wariror
Tahnks for Yuor wihses and hvae a graet tmie.
See I hvae not fogrotent how to wrtie poprlery!
Sfae juroney.
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Born Warrior
Have a great xmas mate and I look forward to more humourous and not so humurous posts in 2010
Everybody else
I’d like to follow Born Warrior in wishing everybody a great xmas and prosperous new year.
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Adrian, your comments about the Iron Lady are delusional. Huge numbers of people (millions) were actually unemployed while working for nationalised industries due to the timidity of the government in face of unions whilst the tax payers picked up the cost for the huge losses those companies ran up as a result! The UK would have been a basket case like Roumania or the like if that situation had carried on. As Ted Heath said, the country had become ungovernable, because the unelected union leaders thought they ran the country. I agree the medicine was painful ( I was there)but the situation couldn’t continue with marginal tax rates of 98% (did you forget that?) to pay for those loss making over staffed nationalised industries.
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to all those small minded jersey-folk who think B.A is “our airline”…..
I suggest you fly Virgin, Emirates or Singapore airlines & see what good hospitality is…
BA crew are as bad as their Chairman – they all think they are the best but they are very incorrect.
Old planes , snobbery, striking – is that what you expect from a national carrier?!?!
Ok so FlyBe are internet-boooking highwaymen with their fares but at least you don’t fly with them thinking you’ve been short-changed .
Apparently BA flight attendants get free meals & on average are paid TWICE more than Virgin crews!
Think twice – buy local – get Aurigny & Blue Island to the uk !!
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Thank you Born Warrior. All the best to you and your family this Christmas and the coming New Year.
To everyone else also a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
There sure have been some interesting posts on this forum this year.
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#36 Well done on listing so many names
Merry Christmas to you also (when it comes) and to everyone else on here (inc. the poor moderators!)
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Why has the word “misery” been used to describe what travelers face? I wonder if the same expression would have been used had bad weather forced the cancelation of flights?
The truth is that most Jersey people resent trade unions because they are brought up automatically to side with the establishment in any dispute. You may well say that this is an “inconvenient” time of year because you want to see your family, visit your ex, go play golf etc. etc. but these people are fighting for their livelihood.
BA try to justify this because their senior Exec chose to emulate a business model of still providing premium cost flights when every other airline pretty much had switched to budget deals – as such they made a 200 Million pound loss and they want to make the cabin crew pay for their own mistake!
With respect to the CEO who has agreed to work free of charge (which should tell you something about his prior financial situation in the first place), the only form of representation a worker truly has is through Trade Unions and the greatest weapon in their arsenal is that of industrial action.
While this may prove ‘inconvenient’ for a few Christmas travelers, it is only thanks to pioneering trade unionists that we enjoy equality of pay in the workplace, less discrimination and protection against harassment and bullying. In addition to this if the exec at BA care so greatly for passengers welfare, why not stop trying to impoverish innocent people, axe their consultants and let business carry on as normal.
Having worked in Jersey, I have encountered frankly incredulous reactions from people who have found I am a Union member and my employer even tried to refuse permission for my Union rep to be present at a disciplinary meeting, only backing off when I told her I would report her decision to the Union and mention her name.
Jersey, we really has to get this pro-establishment chip of its shoulder if we want to move from the dark, satanic mills into the 21st Century.
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Now we have the good news,
Christmas is saved by an illegal ballot
May you all (yes, even those two)have a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.
Born Warrior, dont break a leg.
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@ V for Vendetta #
“Why has the word “misery” been used to describe what travelers face?…”
Because they face a miserable time?? Surely you can appriceate that not getting the hioliday you’ve been looking forward to, losing money, being homeless etc. etc. can make you miserable? The reason doesn’t really matter.
“…BA try to justify this because their senior Exec chose to emulate a business model of still providing premium cost flights when every other airline pretty much had switched to budget deals…” “…In addition to this if the exec at BA care so greatly for passengers welfare, why not stop trying to impoverish innocent people, axe their consultants and let business carry on as normal…”
So which is it; management bad for not changing? or management bad for trying to change?
Don’t forget to change to the industry ’standard’ of budget deals you can’t go on paying your staff 100% more than your competitors.
“…it is only thanks to pioneering trade unionists that we enjoy equality of pay in the workplace, less discrimination and protection against harassment and bullying…”
Yet this union is using bullying(or at least trying to) to achieve an inequality of pay!?
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How does a director of a company with billions lost each year, deserve to pay himself £700,000 a year. Unless he sweated blood by carving out the company and hand building the planes himself, this amount of money is obscene.
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@ Frequent #26
There’s something terribly wrong if there’s only one person in the world who can possibly do a job, so that they need to jet around the planet! Wouldn’t it be easier to train people locally in each country?
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Born Warrior and all others including the moderators – hope you all have a very merry Christmas wherever you are and whatever you’re up to!
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Merry Christmas Born Warrior! No relation just an old tv cartoon favourite of mine.
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Sorry Clair I strongly disagree with you about that woman. She was great at fighting wars but at home it was a different story.
Britain lost its last vestiges of big industry under maggie putting hundreds of thousands on the scrap heap of welfare. Maybe you view this as a cost effective way to run a country I don’t. Much better to have gradually become more productive and carried on producing things, with people in work even if subsidied to a degree. With time and proper managing the numbers working in these industries would have reduced to more competitive levels. What does Britain produce now?
As far as I am concerned the Tory party is the party of the rich, landed gentry and big business and those aspiring to get to these levels.
Look what happened in the 1980’s, greedy self serving individuals did well under these policies. Even now we are reaping this harvest.
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“…What does Britain produce now?…”
What do you think it could be/could’ve been producing competitivly against imports from the far east?
“…With time and proper managing the numbers working in these industries would have reduced to more competitive levels…”
Proper managing? you mean the kind of managment decisions that the BA management know need to be made to stay competitive/solvent for example?
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best wishes to one and all.
Health Wealth and Happiness for 2010.
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best wishes to you too Born Warrior – most of my comments aren’t allowed to be posted nowadays (unfortunately as I like to share my comedy!) but to Adrian I say this:
we were all in a situation (historically and present) where child labourers were common and this was a sign of the times… at least they were getting some sort of income instead of dying of starvation. I know it is really cruel but britain had child miners a century ago so please do not try to get a sympathy vote with us. I went to the Dominican Republic for my honeymoon 6 months ago and I was shocked to hear of the low wages people got but when my grandmother went 5 years ago there was no work – or rather you worked on dead land trying to find food! Surely it is best to let these countries grow in the way we did? To let them earn their own money (no matter how small amount as compared to our standards) at least they are working for themselves just like we did in the last century!
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Adrian @ 50. Hmm, Britain lost 9% of its industrial base under Thatcher. It lost 12% under Blair/Brown… Fifteen Love, new balls…
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‘Travel misery at Christmas’ is this not how the Christmas Story started in the first place?
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