British Airways strike action announced

Not wanting to worry anyone but forewarned is forearmed.

BA has just announced a heap of job cuts and a pay freeze...needless to say the unions ain't at all happy and are making threats...

Unions representing British Airways cabin crew have urged the airline to abandon plans to cut 1,700 jobs and freeze pay.

Following an emergency meeting with the company, the Unite union called for BA to resume talks or "risk a serious, drawn-out confrontation".

The full news article is here...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8293995.stm

IF anyone has booked or is planning to it might be worth making sure you have travel insurance and you're covered in the event of strike action. IMHO it is possible and I wouldn't put it past them as we're already in the middle of wildcat strikes by postal workers that have been going on for a few months now.

Regards
JAS

and all these people saying that the GFC (global financial crisis) is beyond us now....
BA are really struggling are they? could they go under?

mrtravel wrote:and all these people saying that the GFC (global financial crisis) is beyond us now....
BA are really struggling are they? could they go under?

I doubt they would be allowed to go under as they're the national flag carrier and own slices of other companies too so I reckon the Government would bail them out if it ever got that far. I had a look at the stock market to see if the news has affected the share holders and the price has only dropped by 0.5% so they don't seem too worried.

My post was really just to warn anyone thinking of travelling with them in the near future cos i'm fairly sure most airline tickets are non-refundable so at least if warned you can check and take precautions.

I think there might be some industrial action if BA don't change the plan as the staff have only just finished helping the company out by working for nothing...but as long as the shareholders are kept happy that's what matters I'll post an update if there's any more announcements either way.

Regards
JAS

Lastest news on the possibility of BA strike action is that the union are going to ballot cabin crew.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8325917.stm

Still think this could go either way. The threat of a strike over Christmas might force BA to back down but then again the the post office haven't backed down and the wildcat postal strikes we've been having for a few months have now gone official and national so anything's possible...they're back in talks btw in case anyone is waiting on post from the UK

Regards
JAS

Postal strikes and airline strikes..... its not too good and happy in the UK now is it?

Admin wrote:Postal strikes and airline strikes..... its not too good and happy in the UK now is it?

Never a dull moment here

Still no idea when they plan having this ballot. Apparently they're going to have some more talks first with BA.

Can't say I feel too much sympathy for the cabin crew...according to this they're already paid twice as much as the Virgin crews so hardly surprising that BA are in trouble.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8148759.stm

Regards
JAS

Another little update incase anyone is planning on using BA or has relatives flying out for Christmas.

The ballot results are now due to be announced on December 14th and if they do strike it would most likely be 21st at the earliest...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8337188.stm

Regards
JAS

14th December.... not much time behind then and christmas!

penny wrote:14th December.... not much time behind then and christmas!

Yeh it's going to be a nightmare and as far as I know most of their tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable (they always have been when I've flown with them) unless they make an exception in this case...good reason the get travel insurance.

...and BA's woes just got worse...on Friday they announced their first ever loss over a summer season and another 1200 job losses.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8345912.stm

Regards
JAS

Results of the strike ballot have just been announced...they voted in favour of a strike.

Here's the details so far for anyone planning to travel or with family/friends planning to...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8411214.stm
(link to full news article)

The strikes are set to begin on 22 December and run until 2 January. They are expected to cause significant disruption over the Christmas period.

Cabin crew voted overwhelmingly in favour of the strike action.

This is the announcement on the BA website...

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/strike-ballot/public/en_gb

We are aware that Unite, the trade union that represents British Airways' (BA) cabin crew, has announced that its strike ballot has closed with a vote in favour of industrial action between December 22, 2009 and January 2, 2010.

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

Customer guidelines for changing your booking

Last Updated: 14:40 - 14 December 2009

Regards
JAS

The latest now is that the High Court have just declared the strike illegal and issued an injunction...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8418805.stm

Regards
JAS

Here we go again...Round 2

The new ballot is planned for next week and could mean potential strike action over the Easter Holiday period.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8465208.stm

According to last night's tv news BA boss, Willie Walsh, has emailed staff to ask those planning not to strike to volunteer to help cover.

Regards
JAS

Results of the new ballot have just been announced by the union. The union is currently giving a press announcement on BBC News channel and say...

81% have voted in favour of strike action.

They will not announce strike dates today but will hold a meeting first thing in the morning.

Regards
JAS

Finally they've pulled their fingers out and announced strike dates

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8563728.stm

Briefly...

...will go on strike for three days from 20 March and for four days from 27 March.

The Unite union confirmed it would not strike over Easter, but warned there could be further action after 14 April if a resolution had not been agreed...

However watch this space because there is now a new disagreement between BA and the union...

...Another row has broken out between BA and the union about a new offer.

In addition to strike action, the union announced at a press conference that it would also ballot its members on a new offer from BA tabled earlier this week, but said it would not recommend it...

Regards
JAS

On the remote off-chance any of you or your friends/relatives are planning on travelling with BA during the strike here is the link to their website where you should be able to get some specific information about which flights are/aren't operating...

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/strike-ballot/public/en_gb?refevent=HOME_URGENT_CENTRE

Regards
JAS