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Friday 22 October 2010

BA - Could it all be over by Xmas?

I was reading my paper yesterday and noticed an article on British Airways - the title was "The Battle of BA: it could all be over by Christmas" so I instantly thought, oh dear have they finally hammered the last nail in their coffin??

Well the answer is no and in actual fact it could be good news for everybody who works for the travel industry like myself and have felt the previous impact of the BA strikes.

British Airways have announced that they will be offering their cabin crew a new "peace deal" that could potentially remove the threat of strikes at Christmas that travellers have been facing and end the lengthy and bitter dispute, thank god I hear you say!

Unite has agreed to put the offer to BA's 11,000 cabin crew after the Union managed to secure concessions from the airline for the reinstatement of BA's staff travel perks. As if it wasn't enough working for an iconic British Airline with extremely decent salaries in today's Economy they have fought for better travel perks? It seems a bit incredible to me with potentially millions of unemployed, they should be grateful for the job they have.

So what do these perks entail that are going to keep them happy?
  • A pay rise of RPI inflation capped at 2.9% next year and 3% the year after
  • A single bonus worth £6,616 a year for mainline crew to replace a range of individual allowances.
  • Arbitration by the conciliation service Acas where there is a legal dispute over disciplinary action taken against staff during the dispute.
  • Restoration of travel perks but only in 2013
If the crew vote and accept this offer by Unite it will potentially end the dispute that has now dragged on for 18months and caused over 22 days of disruption from striking. I for one know how disruptive these strikes were having had to deal with the flight cancellations and stranded passengers of ours! We were in fear that the BA cabin crew were planning to strike again over Christmas this year so we can only hope that this ballot will solve all of our problems......we shall see.....
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9 November 2010 at 08:41

    If you'd like to read about real issues facing BA's cabin crew and the real reasons they felt forced into taking the difficult decision to strike, read James Crossland's blog instead of this.

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  2. Julia Rhodes16 November 2010 at 02:56

    Hello Anon,

    Thank you for your comment, I have just read James' blog on the reason why BA's cabin crew propose to and do strike and it was indeed informative and definitely shows both sides of the coin. I can only really speak from my experience of it, as im sure you will understand, which I am saddended to say was a bad one. We had lots of passengers stranded and many ultimately missed their holidays. I do understand that action needs to be taken which is why I am behind the above proposals so BA crew can work in better conditions and the operation can run smoothly once again.
    Best of luck to you all :)

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