New BA Ballot Starts January 22nd

The British Airways ballot of cabin crew it will open on 22 January.

The vote over staffing cuts is expected to take around a month to complete and action could start from 1st March.

In a letter to members, the union's aviation officers, National officers Steve Turner and Brian Boyd said they were "determined" to hold a new ballot after a strong vote in favour of industrial action was ruled unlawful by the High Court last month.

"Our ballot will now open on 22nd January following the statutory one week's notice to British Airways," said the Unite officials.
They added that the process had been delayed while the union combed its membership database in a bid to avoid repeating the errors that allowed BA to injunct the previous ballot.

Mrs Justice Cox ruled the poll unlawful because around 900 cabin crew voted despite having applied for voluntary redundancy, which meant they would not be working for the airline at the time of any industrial action. As a result BA was able to overturn a strike vote that had secured a 92% majority on an 80% turnout.
"We are sure that you appreciate the importance of ensuring our data is as accurate as is possible. Despite the decision of the High Court in December we are absolutely committed and determined to ensuring your voice is heard through this ballot," said the officials.

The ballot will take place against the backdrop of peace talks between BA executives and Unite officials, held under the auspices of the TUC, the UK trade union body and chaired by general secretary Brendan Barber.

BA's chief executive, Willie Walsh, moved quickly after the High Court ruling to offer talks with Unite and has already offered concessions over changes that were imposed in November.

BA reduced the number of cabin crew on long-haul flights from between 15 and 16 positions to 14 but has offered assurances on the duties carried out by the cabin service director. However, it remains adamant that there must be multimillion pound cuts in crew costs.

Its negotiating team opened the TUC talks last week with a presentation emphasising that BA cabin crew have a higher average wage than staff at easyJet and Virgin Atlantic. Unite's branch for British Airways cabin crew, Bassa, argues that a better comparison would be with European rivals such as Lufthansa and Air France-KLM.

A BA spokesman said: "Unite's general secretaries [Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson] have said they are approaching the talks in a constructive spirit and are seeking a settlement."