BA Dispute: Unite Recommends Rejection Of Offer

Unite to tell cabin crew to reject offer

Unite has told BA cabin crew has said it will "strongly recommend" that they reject the latest offer from the airline in a ballot vote.

Unite said that although progress had been made during talks since the March strikes, an agreement had not been reached.

"The blame for this rests exclusively with an intransigent management which is determined to attack trade unionism and persecute its employees who supported the strike action last month," said Unite's joint general secretary Tony Woodley.

Tony accused BA of "victimising" cabin crew who had their travel perks taken away after the strike, and of taking "vindictive and disproportionate" disciplinary action against it members.

Unite said that the new ballot would close on May 7th.

Tony Woodley said that there were three main reasons for rejecting BA’s latest pay proposal. First, BA removed free and discounted travel concessions from members of staff that had gone on strike. Mr Woodley said: “This plan aims to treat loyal employees and trade unionists as permanent second-class citizens, branded for having supported the union and humiliated for having taken democratically endorsed and fully legal strike action.”

Second, the union said that BA was taking disciplinary action against more than 50 crew accused of breaching company rules in relation to the strike. This is thought to include promoting the strike. Unite said that four crew members had been dismissed for breaching the company’s rules. The union wants these disciplinary hearings to be held at Acas, the conciliation service.

Finally, the bigger issue of pay cuts and changes to working conditions has yet to be resolved.

Tony Woodley said: “This is at the very least a major failure of industrial statesmanship by Willie Walsh [BA’s chief executive], fanning the flames of conflict at the very moment when peace would otherwise have been at hand. At worst, it is a clear statement of intent, that the company wishes to break trade unionism among its cabin crew.”