ATW Daily News
BA, Unite continue debate as strike enters third day
Monday March 22, 2010
British Airways flight attendants represented by Unite will conclude their three-day walkout today amid contradictory claims regarding the impact of the airline's first strike in 13 years.
BA set out to serve at least 60% of its passengers using re-trained employees, wet-leased aircraft and Unite members choosing not to honor the strike (ATWOnline, March 18). According to CEO Willie Walsh, the carrier exceeded that target. "The performance [Saturday] was very good, better than we had expected. We were able to resinstate a number of flights and we've been able to do that again today," he said Sunday.
"We're getting very good numbers of cabin crew turning up for work. I really appreciate that. At [London] Gatwick it was fantastic. Ninety-seven percent of our cabin crew turned up for work at Gatwick [on Saturday], 52.5% of our cabin crew turned up for work at Heathrow [Saturday], and the numbers [Sunday] are very similar. In fact, slightly higher than those figures so far," he said yesterday.
BA said flights were operated with "simplified onboard service" to reflect reduced crew numbers. It said it added flights to its LHR and LGW schedules (all flights at London City were operating) and that its contingency plans "continued to work well" yesterday. It said there was "no evidence" of strike action at foreign airports.
Not surprisingly, Unite told a different story. It called LHR's Terminal 5 a "ghost town" and claimed the strike had 80% participation Saturday. BA managed to operate just one-third of its Saturday departures, the union said, adding that there were 85 BA aircraft parked at LHR Saturday afternoon. It also claimed 20 aircraft were parked at Cardiff and 20 more at Shannon, which Walsh refuted. Unite further accused BA of operating empty aircraft "to make it seem it is functioning."
In a Sunday message to members, Unite Joint Secretary General Tony Woodley offered his congratulations on a "magnificent start to the industrial action which has been forced on you" and exhorted them to "stay strong" in the face of "unfair abuse" by BA. The union claimed 38 employees, including 14 union representatives, were suspended by the airline during the dispute.
Woodley said that just a "small minority" of flight attendants had crossed the picket line but that he would appeal to the BA board to restart negotiations in an effort to avert the second strike scheduled for March 27-30.
BA set out to serve at least 60% of its passengers using re-trained employees, wet-leased aircraft and Unite members choosing not to honor the strike (ATWOnline, March 18). According to CEO Willie Walsh, the carrier exceeded that target. "The performance [Saturday] was very good, better than we had expected. We were able to resinstate a number of flights and we've been able to do that again today," he said Sunday.
"We're getting very good numbers of cabin crew turning up for work. I really appreciate that. At [London] Gatwick it was fantastic. Ninety-seven percent of our cabin crew turned up for work at Gatwick [on Saturday], 52.5% of our cabin crew turned up for work at Heathrow [Saturday], and the numbers [Sunday] are very similar. In fact, slightly higher than those figures so far," he said yesterday.
BA said flights were operated with "simplified onboard service" to reflect reduced crew numbers. It said it added flights to its LHR and LGW schedules (all flights at London City were operating) and that its contingency plans "continued to work well" yesterday. It said there was "no evidence" of strike action at foreign airports.
Not surprisingly, Unite told a different story. It called LHR's Terminal 5 a "ghost town" and claimed the strike had 80% participation Saturday. BA managed to operate just one-third of its Saturday departures, the union said, adding that there were 85 BA aircraft parked at LHR Saturday afternoon. It also claimed 20 aircraft were parked at Cardiff and 20 more at Shannon, which Walsh refuted. Unite further accused BA of operating empty aircraft "to make it seem it is functioning."
In a Sunday message to members, Unite Joint Secretary General Tony Woodley offered his congratulations on a "magnificent start to the industrial action which has been forced on you" and exhorted them to "stay strong" in the face of "unfair abuse" by BA. The union claimed 38 employees, including 14 union representatives, were suspended by the airline during the dispute.
Woodley said that just a "small minority" of flight attendants had crossed the picket line but that he would appeal to the BA board to restart negotiations in an effort to avert the second strike scheduled for March 27-30.
by Brian Straus
