Plan Walkouts For 20 Days Over A Four Week Period

The long-simmering dispute between British Airways and its cabin crews is showing no signs of abating. Unite the Union said Monday cabin crews plan to hold an additional 20 days of strike action following their "overwhelming" rejection of the company’s offer in a ballot last week.

The union said BA management failed to offer any new proposals to settle the dispute over the weekend, so crew are to take strike action on the following days:  May 18-22 inclusive, May 24-28 inclusive, May 30-June 3 inclusive and June 5-9 inclusive.

“Passengers and investors alike will be dismayed that British Airways' management rejected an approach by the union over the weekend, after their offer had been comprehensively turned down by their own employees," said Unite’s joint general secretaries Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley. “Cabin crew are left with no choice but to take further strike action.  There can be no industrial peace without meaningful negotiations and while management victimizes trade unionists and uses disciplinary procedures in a witch-hunt. The seven days notice period is sufficient time for BA management to do the sensible thing and reopen meaningful negotiations.”

Unite is also intending to hold a further industrial action ballot of BA cabin crew over issues which have arisen from the company’s conduct during the dispute.

BA said in a statement "We are confident that many crew will again ignore Unite's pointless strike call and support the efforts of the rest of the airline to keep our customers flying." It says that many union flight crew members broke the picket lines and worked during a similar labor action in March, and that it thinks that service from London's Gatwick and City airports will be largely unaffected. The New York Times reports that the airline also would operate as many of its long haul flights as possible from Heathrow.

"We are speaking to a number of carriers about leasing in extra aircraft to support our shorthaul schedule and also obtaining thousands of seats from other airlines to help our customers rebook if their original flight is cancelled," BA said. the airline will release a revised schedule for Heathrow several days before the strike is set to begin.

FMI: www.ba.com, www.unitetheunion.org