New BA Strike

[fork me]

Striking for :

1. A return of the benefits that were removed when they went on strike before. These benefits are non-contractual AND they were warned they would be withdrawn if they continued to strike.

2. For people that were planning of striking last time but were instead "sick" to get paid.

No, still no sympathy from this anti-union poster.

Good, fair enough, I do get sick of some anti union people just assuming EVERY strike is merely about pay.

I am an ex Union Rep (NUT, and MSF before that) but aren't rampantly pro-strike or anti-strike. I weigh each up on it's merits.

In this case I'm on the fence. BA staff HAVE been treated badly and "punishing" people for the previous strike is very bad management. Basically an attempt to bully staff into submission. It's a tactic that rarely works if there's a strong union involved it just pisses the staff off even more. On the other hand, in the current financial climate strikes COULD finish BA off, then none of them will have jobs.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Good, fair enough, I do get sick of some anti union people just assuming EVERY strike is merely about pay.

I am an ex Union Rep (NUT, and MSF before that) but aren't rampantly pro-strike or anti-strike. I weigh each up on it's merits.

In this case I'm on the fence. BA staff HAVE been treated badly and "punishing" people for the previous strike is very bad management. Basically an attempt to bully staff into submission. It's a tactic that rarely works if there's a strong union involved it just pisses the staff off even more. On the other hand, in the current financial climate strikes COULD finish BA off, then none of them will have jobs.

I think the thing with this dispute is that many of the things they have been striking over are already in place at other airports for fellow BA staff. All it makes the BA staff at Heathrow look like is a bunch of greedy dinosaurs who really couldn't give a toss if their colleagues lost their jobs because of the crippling costs of the strike on BA.

 

[bhaexpress]

*waits patiently for anti-union people to actually read what the strike is about so that they actually have a clue before posting nonsense*

Mate, I worked for a BA rival for nearly ten years and believe me it's you that needs to get your facts straight. Are you aware that it's only Heathrow staff that are striking ? The have a serious double standard. The fact that they are trying toi put their company and thus many of their colleagues of of a job has clearly passed you by. Nobody knocks unions normally but this is issue is something only a moron would support.

 

[Icy Gull]

The strike will have minimal effect as BA proved more than capable of running a pretty full service during the last strike and it seems quite a few BA staff have left Unite anyway but still work for BA. The strikers are just marking their cards to get made redundant/got rid of at the 1st opportunity by BA. I guess the older cabin crew make up most of the strikers anyway so will be easily replaced. The Unions will not win but will no doubt keep putting peoples jobs at risk regardless.

I believe BA also made a small profit in the last quarter so their figures can't be that bad given the dramas with them and the travel business generally due to the recession and volcanic ash. They are hardly on their last legs as some seem to be suggesting.

 

[Castello]

Unions in touch with the pubic mood as usual.

when the public pay union subs, ill believe trade unions should worry about the public mood. Until that time , Ill expect trade unions to do what their members tell them ( in this case overwhelmingly so) to do

 

[Tummy Burger]

when the public pay union subs, ill believe trade unions should worry about the public mood. Until that time , Ill expect trade unions to do what their members tell them ( in this case overwhelmingly so) to do

Why oh why did I bother finding this thread. I don't blame people for being blind to the real reasons for the strike, people just believe what they are being told by the press ( Which mainly comes out of the BA press office ). The strike will no doubt happen again, so I look forward to finding another thread like this nearer the time.