News: BA try to avert strike action
Flights > News > # 1160 (22/01/2007)
A new round of talks are scheduled today in an attempt to avert a three-day strike by thousands of British Airways cabin crew which is set to cause major disruption.
Stewards and stewardesses, members of the Transport and General Workers Union, will walk out from Monday next week. It follows the breakdown of negotiations aimed at resolving a bitter row over sickness absence, pay and staffing.
Two further three-day stoppages will be held on February 5, 6 and 7 and February 12, 13 and 14 unless there is a deal.
TGWU Deputy General Secretary Jack Dromey accused BA of “bungling” attempts to achieve agreements while the airline said the union was refusing to talk about any degree of change affecting cabin crew.
BA said the strike was “totally unjustifiable” and has called in conciliation service Acas in a bid to avert the strike action.
BA said: “We are extremely disappointed that the T&G has walked away from negotiations and issued a direct threat to the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of our customers.”
It said walkouts would “cause massive disruption for customers and needless damage to our business at a time when we are facing more intense competition than ever before.”
BA claimed that the union’s demand for revised pay scales would give some workers wage rises of up to 18% while the T&G’s total demands would increase the airline’s annual cost by £37m.
Mr Dromey accused BA of failing to engage with the union on a compromise proposal it had put forward.
He said: “Our members are fed up with being bullied into coming to work when sick, and with the divisions caused by poverty levels of new entrant pay scales.”
The airline said people who are booked to fly between 29 January and 16 February could change the date of their trip.
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