thats a sore point, as I took a 50% paycut to keep a job this year, a camping holiday was all we could afford.

I do have sympathy for the cabin crews plight, its a crap position to be in, having your contracts changed etc etc but the staff must realise the world has moved on, BA's money making market no longer exsists, like it or not there are too many premuim airlines and seats and not enough bums to fill them.

BA hired a CEO that knows the budget airline business, that should tell you the direction they want to go.

Striking isn't the way to go, it will just hasten the plans, if / when the planned merger goes ahead which staff do you think will be made redundent? the unionised strikers at BA or Iberia's??

I am happy to read from "our" insider here. As an outsider who simply reads mass media, I got the impression of economic crisis + strategic mistakes = less revenue = job cuts. Protesting against those would not make sense since the management simply would not have the money to fix it. If you tell us that there are completely different reasons behind it and we are about to learn them in some days, I for one am looking forward to it. Quite frankly: If you want the strike to not happen and you believe that your reasons are good and the public will understand them, you should publish them as fast as possible, so that there is enough time to build up public pressure on your board and CEO.

It's interesting what you say. Back in the Lord King days, I always felt that BA were only interested in premium customers, and economy travellers (or whatever euphemism BA use) were considered a nuisance. Now we have a situation where business travellers are treated like economy travellers used to be, and economy travellers are below contempt (narrow seat pitches, barely edible food if any, etc).

I've travelled Emirates, Singapore, Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa (and others), and, I can tell you, BA are not in that league. I do travel BA now and again, usually because of a code-share arrangement, but choose an alternative like Swiss of Lufthansa whenever I get the chance.

Yes, I would agree with some of your points. I was flying back then too. It is galling to see what we have become. It's all about profit and fat cat bonuses, sod the customers. We all feel the same about the way we have been heading since those days.
The cuts are always made to the lowest earners (not only in BA) the chiefs take the money and move on to bigger things, leaving the next fat cat to pick up the pieces and start all over again.

Ain't that always the way?

Edited: as I didn't see this thread !


I hope this doesn't affect anyone here!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8414306.stm

BA are taking the unins to court!
Easy answer though:
Book your flight with Swiss!

I've just heard it maybe forecast snow in the UK this weekend. All striking is possibly academic as the country will grind to a halt anyway On a more serious note, hope everyone gets home for Christmas somehow.

BA are now taking the strikers to court? its shame that such a world renown carrier has to get down such a levels on either side.

I just feel sorry for the appox 900,000 people who will be affected

Well, seems like it'll be snowing here in Switzerland as well in a few days... (down in the Geneva/Lausanne valley region).

Cabin crew strike ballot - dates announced

Unite, the trade union that represents British Airways’ (BA's) cabin crew, announced on 14 December 2009 that its strike ballot closed with a vote in favour of industrial action between 22 December 2009 and 2 January 2010.
We would like to reassure our customers that all of our flights are continuing to operate as normal at this time.

We are currently reworking our flight schedules for the strike period and aim to announce them as quickly as possible. Our intention is to inform affected customers directly if we have their e-mail address or by SMS text if we have their mobile phone number.
We will use the contact details supplied at the time of booking, so we ask customers to please ensure these are correct and up-to-date:
Update your contact details through Manage My Booking

We have issued guidelines for customers booked to travel between these dates.
Please note: BA London City services (except our business class only London City – New York flights) are operated by our fully owned subsidiary BA CityFlyer. These cabin crew were not part of the ballot so BA CityFlyer's operation is not affected.
Openskies, codeshare and franchise flights will also continue to operate normally.

Customer guidelines for changing your booking

We are commencing legal action against Unite's planned strike:

Unite Christmas strike legal challenge

Frequently Asked Questions

Read a message from our Chief Executive, Willie Walsh


Last updated: 12:15 - 16 December 2009

Regardless of the underlying reasons (and I'm sure they're there),
IMHO if the strike goes ahead, it will cost the union and the cabin
staff any and all public goodwill and support they might otherwise
have accrued.

And it's not just going to alienate "a million travellers", it's more likely
going to alienate a million families, plus the millions of others who are
not travelling, but who are thinking "Poor beggars! I'm not travelling
with BA this Christmas, but I certainly won't take the same risk in
future..."
.

Eurostar are also threatening to strike now, along with baggage handlers at heathrow.

I guess everyone wants an extended christmas holiday.

So the UK's gonna be cut off from the rest of the world for two weeks this Christmas then?

Ahhh... the Christmas spirit. oh dear...

BA have won the high court injunction, so there will no be strikes at Christmas !

BA strike ruled illegal by High Court
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8418805.stm

"The injunction means that the 12-day strike cannot now go ahead"

Happy Christmas

Business resumed as usual!

Well again the unions have shot themselves in the foot. Corrieorrie, thanks for your posts, it's been really useful to hear your side of the story and happy to hear more about what's happening now, but in the end

- the public is going to be remember this and not want to book BA
- there may well be an actual strike next year - so reinforcing in the public perception that BA flights are not reliable

Both of these will reduce bookings no matter how sympathetic people are to the cabin crew.

- plus the union comes out looking incompetent as they can't even organise a strike properly.
- I presume an illegal strike won't be held due to the risks of getting sued and bankrupting the union.

So a good day for travellers over xmas but really this was never going to end well for the cabin crew - sorry. Once again the workers have been let down by the leaders - but this time it's your own union leaders who the members have previously (I presume) voted for.

Yes, I have to agree, our union have messed up BIG time and we are all furious. However, I and my family were also going to be caught up if we had gone on strike.
12 days were ridiculous and we were never told that it would be for that length of time otherwise we would not have voted for it, I'm certain.

Of course we all know that we have not won any friends over this, there has been a massive onslaught from the public and we have all had to have very broad shoulders over the past few days, however, If Management continue down this road (basically making the most of friends in high places) the airline we are passionate about is gone forever.

British Airways has been able to employ some of the highest calibre cabin crew because of our terms and conditions and superb training. It was unheard of for BA crew to move to other airlines - they all came to us. Due to the changes in place now, no one will want to work for BA as we are now no different to theirs.

There are approximatly 3000 school leavers and Gap year students about to be trained up in March to start a new fleet ( at the moment we are either Long haul or Short haul) this fleet will do a mix of both. Their terms and conditions are gross. Peanuts (hourly rate) pay, no guaranteed days off, will be made to work whist on days off if weather or any other kind of disruption occurs, minimum rest time off downroute. They have never flown yet so are in for a huge shock when they realise It's no glamour job,

Yes, I can hear you say, about time they worked for a living. Well these a just a few of the planned changes. The new fleet will of course do all the work we do now (because they'll be cheaper) and the 14,000 crew as of now will sit at home basically on garden leave until we move to the new fleet ( to gain any kind of promotion etc.) or we'll be shown the door. Yes fantastic, experienced crew who k now what you want before you ask for it and will take good care of you in- flight.

All these changes mean, loss of experienced crew, safety being put at risk, crew fatigue, (you try flying backwards and forwards over the Atlantic several times a month with minimum time off to recover in between) you may well do it as a passenger but working on full flights with demanding passengers is really hard work when suffering jet lag.

We do not expect sympathy from the public as you would only understand if you did the job. The people who have dreamed up these changes work in cosy offices.

I stand by my colleagues, we apologise constantly, every single day for BA shortfalls, IFE broken down, seat doesn't recline, special meal not loaded, product being chipped away , delays, no stands available etc. etc.

The public are hugely complimentary to us and get fed up with BAs shortfalls, we're the ones who take the flack because we're the BA they see.
I hope it can be resolved, but I fear our union will not get the same support now.

Happy christmas to you all and may you all get to where you want to go to this christmas.

From todays Times -

The grim reality of life as an air stewardess