BA results better than expected: End war against cabin crew, Unite
urges
5th February 2010
With British Airways returning better than anticipated third
quarter figures, Unite the union has again urged the airline to
stop warring with its cabin crew and concentrate on building for
the future.
BA has announced a smaller that expected loss of £50 million
over the past three months, returning a marginal operating
profit. Unite says that the figures show very early signs
that recovery is within the airline's grasp, but this will be
hampered if BA persists with its aggressive attacks on a key
workforce, its cabin crew.
Len McCluskey, Unite assistant general secretary, said: "These
figures give some cause to believe that BA is over the worst.
They also throw into question BA's repeated assertion that this is
an airline in peril.
"While BA is not out of the woods yet, it is turning the
corner. This ought to make it more flexible in reaching a
negotiated settlement with its cabin crew.
"We have said all along that the way forward on the dispute with
crew is not through litigation or imposition, but by agreeing a
lasting, negotiated solution. So again we urge BA to end the
war it is waging against its 13,000 cabin crew because management
by imposition will cost the airline customers and a damaged
brand. It must stop."
In Spring 2009, Unite and the cabin crew proposed cost-saving
measures which could have returned, by BA's own estimates, around
£60 million to the business. This contrasts sharply with the
£31 million which the company claims to have saved by imposing a
reduction in crew numbers last November, an action which forced
Unite to ballot its 12,000 plus cabin crew members.
ENDS
