A British Airways plane passes an England flag as it comes in to land at Heathrow Airport in London, Saturday, March 27, 2010. British Airways workers took to the picket lines Saturday for the second round of strikes against the struggling airline, causing widespread disruption and frustration among passengers. Union officials say some 12,000 members are taking part in the four-day strike, which comes only a week after another walkout touched off travel chaos. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The second round of strikes against British Airways by cabin crew members continued Monday with an intensifying war of words poisoning the climate for future negotiations.
Unite, the union representing striking cabin crew members, accused the airline of paying pilots to fill in for striking cabin crew.
“BA is now operating the world's most expensive crew in a bid to break its far cheaper, world-class workforce,” said Unite assistant general secretary Len McCluskey. “'Where is the sense in running an ever-creaky contingency operation built on throwing money at £166-an-hour ($248 per hour) pilots pretending to be crew when they have nearly 12,000 fully-trained professionals who should be working?”
According to the union, cabin crew members with five years of experience earn £16 per hour ($24 per hour).
The airline, meanwhile, boasted that a higher percentage of flights were running as scheduled during this round of strikes.
“Our operations have been strong and the number of crew reporting for duty means we are flying our expected contingency schedule,” BA chief executive Willie Walsh told staff in a Sunday message obtained by the Telegraph. “I would like to thank staff for their efforts which are making a real difference to our customers.”
The airline claimed 63 percent of crew members reported to work Saturday, up from 56 percent the previous Saturday, during Unite’s first three-day work stoppage. The union claimed only 359 crew members reported to work. The union also accused the airline of offering crew members £100 ($150) per flight to cross the picket line.
Unite represents about 90 percent of BA’s 12,000 cabin crew members. The union is fighting the airline’s plan to cut that number by 1,700 and implement a two-year pay freeze.
The airline says the current strike, scheduled to end tomorrow, is costing it £5.5 million ($8.2 million) per day, compared with £7 million ($10.5 million) per day lost during the strike’s first round.
British Airways said it flew 120,000 passengers this weekend compared with 86,000 the previous weekend.
The airline has said its cost-cutting plan could save £62.5 million ($93.5 million) per year. Using its own figures, it already will have lost £43 million ($64 million) during the two rounds of cabin crew strikes.
Unite has promised another strike action after Easter, possibly beginning April 14, if no progress is made in negotiations with the airline. The union said it is raising a war chest of £700,000 ($1 million) to pay striking workers.
The strike was having an impact on Chicago Monday. British Airways Flight 294, scheduled to depart O'Hare for London at 5:15 p.m., was canceled. Flight 296, scheduled to leave at 8:10 p.m. for London, was running 14 minutes late, according to the O'Hare flight search engine.
Comments
This is turning into such a nightmare. Bad for everyone.
I am so tired of this strike already... as if passengers need another inconvenience at the airport!
It may be an inconvenience, but so is working for a near bankrupt, once mighty international carrier and not earning a living wage. I don't know all the issues, but this is a nasty dispute. If members of the flight crews are indeed serving as flight attendants, then they must have no respect for the labor union movement, or their own union for that matter. Remember, BA was the airline that drove Freddy Laker's discount carrier out of business through collusion and other devious practices. Some people have long memories, and I cannot feel much sympathy for them.
You write great articles, Dennis. Congratulations and good luck.
Thought the strike was over. Don't these people understand that travel is down, oil is up, the economy is down and, and and....
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