leuk2

just want to keep this thread alive.

avalon

Now the crews are feeling backlash and rethinking..

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...e-1843067.html

hetismij

A lot of crew members said before the ballot that they weren't happy with a strike over Christmas. After the ballot some expressed surprise that the strike was going ahead, saying the question on the ballot was too ambiguous. It seems that the union has decided this strike will take place regardless of what their members really think.

However, good news is that BA and Unite are talking again, so I hope for all those flying that a solution can be found.

A major problem for BA is their pension fund. BA pensioners get a fantastic deal and BA just can't afford it any more. Two of my cousins are BA pensioners and are doing very nicely thankyou from their pensions - even better than the civil servants we know with their great pensions.

Lynnaustin

The news reports last night indicated that if they do strike then baggage handlers at Heathrow will support them. This would affect not just BA passengers but other airlines that use Heathrow.

hsv

The strike was just blocked by the High Court.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8418805.stm

daveesl

Thank god I'm not flying BA this year. I can just imagine the "joyful" and "cheerful" and "customer friendliness" that will be going on.

"You want your F&%*ing drink? Check out the big bowl of blue juice in the head."

" You want a pillow? Where do you think you are, Motel 6?"

" Sorry everyone, but we accidentally warmed all the meals up to 400 degrees and left them in the box for several hours, so your food is going to be a bit toasty on this trip"

On the overnight flights, they'll actually do dinner service 4 hours after taking off and do informational announcements over the PA every 3 minutes.

Yeah, those are going to be some fun flights

willit

I am mostly glad - a strike over Christmas is a horrible thing to do to families.

I would normally have supported the unions over this - I know it is a recession and some pay is better than none, but I would want to fight to keep my contracted terms and conditions.
The earlier suggestion that employees should work one month without pay for the good of the company did strike some as harsh (I might do so if the bank would let me off a month of Mortgage, Tescos give my my groceries etc.)

What did puzzle me was the "Illegal strike ballot" - I undertand that of about 13000 ballots, 800 or so were not legitimate as these people have already taken voluntary redundancy but this still left around 12000 legitimate votes where the ratio was 9:1 in favour of industrial action. It seemed to me that the "Establishment" has used a technicality to ignore the decisions of employees.

Mucky

"It seemed to me that the "Establishment" has used a technicality to ignore the decisions of employees."

Good job we have freedom of speech here or we would be right in the $41T. And anyway, isn't that what government does generally?