BA Strike [Merged]

[Don Quixote]

Strikes should be made illegal, for the good of the nation.

 

[itszamora]

Strikes should be made illegal, for the good of the nation.

 

[Cian]

He really needs to decide what he BA wants to be. He's very directionless and reactionary when it comes to placing his brand.

I think he probably wants it to be what he turned Aer Lingus in to - a budget airline with business/first class on longhaul.

That worked, before the recession. Now his sucessor is having to slash and burn there too.

 

[casbom]

I think the drastic drop in passengers is partly Walsh's doing. Customers were deserting BA before the recession. Originally BA were a premium brand...with a premium price. Then he cut corners so they were a run-o-the-mill airline but still claiming to be a premium carrier and still charging premium rates (cue customers leaving). Now they are a run-o-the-mill airline charging run-o-the-mill prices. He really needs to decide what he BA wants to be. He's very directionless and reactionary when it comes to placing his brand.

I wouldn't say that, before the recession the main business of BA was corporate banking customers and they made a record profit in the year before the recession, so customers leaving isn't really true. Obviously since the recession, corporate customers have dried up and now BA are looking to the leisure customers hence investments in BA Holidays to set up Dynamic Packaging etc.

If he/BA did nothing then they would be in a worse condition (if possible!)

 

[Don Quixote]

You must be a COMMUNIST.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

Strikes should be made illegal, for the good of the nation.

Wouldn't agree with that, but would agree with something that said that they had to get a certain % of the total members to vote (as well as voting in favour) in order for the strike to be valid.

There has been occasions where strikes have been called on the basis of 20% turnout. Something like 45% would be good I think.

 

[Scampi]

Strikes should be made illegal, for the good of the nation.

Well it worked for that Russian chap and his little German friend with the moustache.

 

[fire&skill]

Sorry if this is already on here - can't be arsed to look through all four pages.

The perks will be reinstated in part of a return to work package that will see all parties compromising in one way or another to ensure that no-one's lost face. All part of the antler rattling I'm afraid. Seen it so many times before and I speak as somebody who was in a long running national dispute over 20 years ago. God, I'm so old.

 

[The Oldman]

Sorry if this is already on here - can't be arsed to look through all four pages.

The perks will be reinstated in part of a return to work package that will see all parties compromising in one way or another to ensure that no-one's lost face. All part of the antler rattling I'm afraid. Seen it so many times before and I speak as somebody who was in a long running national dispute over 20 years ago. God, I'm so old.

I think you are wrong about this. The cabin crew who did not strike will be mad if the staff travel perks are given back to the strikers and they have made that very clear to Willie Walsh and the BA board. I agree that some deal may be made with the strikers but they will have lost big time. Incidentally, the word this afternoon is that so many staff are indicating they will not take part in the next strike some are predicting the strike will now collapse.

 

[fire&skill]

I think you are wrong about this. The cabin crew who did not strike will be mad if the staff travel perks are given back to the strikers and they have made that very clear to Willie Walsh and the BA board. I agree that some deal may be made with the strikers but they will have lost big time. Incidentally, the word this afternoon is that so many staff are indicating they will not take part in the next strike some are predicting the strike will now collapse.

If Willy Walsh wants to re-establish any sort of rapport with the people he's pissed off - and whether you agree with them or not, he's pissed a LOT of people off - he'll offer the perks back as a bargaining tool.

 

[Billy the Fish]

The company lost £300 million last year, they have to cut costs somewhere. All the strikers will be pretty pissed off if BA goes bust and they all lose their jobs.

 

[BensGrandad]

The company lost £300 million last year, they have to cut costs somewhere. All the strikers will be pretty pissed off if BA goes bust and they all lose their jobs.

They know that that will not happen as the country/taxpayers will bail them out. Could the government re nationalize it and take it away from the shareholders?

 

[The Merry Prankster]

They know that that will not happen as the country/taxpayers will bail them out. Could the government re nationalize it and take it away from the shareholders?

If they are banking on that then they are f***ed. There would be no public or political will to do that.

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

Perhaps the consensus should be that BA staff are on a fair package for what they do, and staff who work for other airlines are the ones being shafted ? and i doubt the gripe about cutting the number of cabin crew from 14 to 13 is about extra work, its probably about jobs being lost, people shouldnt just condemn strikers out of hand because its de rigeur to do so these days.

All "jobs lost" were voluntary redundancies.

 

[Vankleek Hill Seagull]

The company lost £300 million last year, they have to cut costs somewhere. All the strikers will be pretty pissed off if BA goes bust and they all lose their jobs.

They know that that will not happen as the country/taxpayers will bail them out. Could the government re nationalize it and take it away from the shareholders?

If they are banking on that then they are f***ed. There would be no public or political will to do that.

Reading that conjured up a picture of Sir Richard Branson gleefully rubbing his hands at the prospect of being Britains "flag carrier" taking over Heathrow.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

...or alternatively who not differentiate yourself in the market place and supply a slightly superior product?

Someone has - they're called Virgin.

It was touched upon in another post but I'd be interested in the income tax the BA staff pay for these perks. My girlfriends ex is an engineer at Gatwick and he swears blind that his free and discounted flights attract no income tax - TIME TO START TAXING THEM THEN !

 

[Westdene Seagull]

All I would say to you is this. If I was one of BA's spin doctors to Willie Walsh and I wanted some union concessions, I would tell him to put the fear of God into all his staff, keep banging on about the recession, and repeatedly suggest the whole company was on the brink and everyone would lose their jobs. And make sure it was in all the papers. Ultimately, you can't run a company on fear alone.

But the fear is real - their accounts show them to be losing millions - or are the accounts spin as well ?

 

[tedebear]

Unite need to learn that they do not run companies, they represent employees. If Unite stand by something they think their employees want which will in the long term bring a company to its knees, they should be advising their employees to be as brave as the rest of us are having to be.

I'm not mad keen on Willy Walsh, but he's between a rock and a hard place here, Unite need to learn to work with companies in difficulty, and not assume that they have endless pits of cash.

People are no longer chosing to fly BA, if Willy Walsh does't arrest that decline, Unite will not have any employees to represent. My suggestion to Mr Walsh sadly would be to let those people on old contracts go, its a below the line adjustment, and start again with cheaper more enthusiastic (and not embalmed) staff...

 

[beorhthelm]

The average (£29k?) is boosted by long-servers under old-style contracts, in a very similar way to the situation currently in newspapers.

Everyone who has started more recently has nothing like that sort of contract. I understand most BA cabin crew are on about £12-14,000 basic, plus £6-8,000 allowances. For a very disruptive working schedule, anti-social hours, Bank Holidays, weekends, etc, is that - £18-22,000 - outrageous? I bet there are plenty on here who wouldn't get out of bed for that.

seems to me you've been sold some union spin. if the average is £29k and there are some on £50k, then there must be alot of those or the typical wage is quite close to 29k. 12k+6k is 18k, £14+8 is £22K, so we are already starting to get away from those low figures. Disruptive schudule? anti-social? weekends? im sure that s major concern while on an stayover in Singapore or Brazil. its not like this isnt flagged up and if they dont like it or they need a change they can transfer to the checkin.

the fact is this dispute is about a reduction of 1 head per flight (to similar, still higher, numbers of staff than competitors) and supervisors having to lower themselves to serve customers (so what exactly is their purpose on the flight anyway?), while on above average salaries for the industry. feel free to highlight which of these is spin and not true.

and the reason the public is not supporting them? because they chose to have their strike at Christmas and now Easter, impacting ordinary people to most effect. if they had a strike on mid week in Feburary when only business traveller where inpacted they might have got some sympathy and support from the public. once again the strike has more about union grandstanding than the actual members concerns.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

seems to me you've been sold some union spin. if the average is £29k and there are some on £50k, then there must be alot of those or the typical wage is quite close to 29k. 12k+6k is 18k, £14+8 is £22K, so we are already starting to get away from those low figures. Disruptive schudule? anti-social? weekends? im sure that s major concern while on an stayover in Singapore or Brazil. its not like this isnt flagged up and if they dont like it or they need a change they can transfer to the checkin.

And lets not forget a barman or waiter would earn considerably less than this without the stay overs in exotic locations, commission on onboard sales or the free and discounted flights but does a similar job ( albiet without the safety bit ). The cabin are very greedy through and through and I hope their selfish behaviour doesn't take the company under resulting in the loss of the fellow workers jobs - the strikers jobs I couldn't give a monkeys about !