about the forthcoming BA strike?

[iwastooearlytobeayummymummy]

DS (11)is supposed to be going on a much anticipated school trip next week, but both outward and return dates are strike days.
I can't begin to tell you how much he has been looking forward to this trip.

DD3 (13 )is also away, at the same time, on a choir trip, but flying with another operator.

Excited at the prospect of 2 children away,and happy to leave DD2 ( 18) home alone, DH and I have booked a much needed break ourselves, first time away without the children in 5 years.

Now everything is 'up in the air', no pun intended .

Can somebeody please explain why cabin crew are so aggreived? I've had a look at BBC's overview of the reasons behind the strike, but don't really get it.I also work for an organisation ( local authority actually) that has announced a 2 year pay freeze, recruitment freeze and forthcoming redundancies. Apart from free tea bags and instant coffee I get no other priveliges.

IABU to think they've got nothing to strike over?

JemL, maybe you can email BA customer relations ans aske them that?
Imho: men are more likely to abuse sexually than women. As a child I was touched inappropriately many times (on a crowded bus, in Rome, on the way to school), and it was always by a man, never by a woman. No male school friends ever reported a woman touching them on the bus, but several of us girls were touched by men.
I totally agree with the BA's policy, it might not be perfect but it makes sense.

Lovechoc, thanks! Greetings to your DH

Have to say that this thread changed my mind about the BA strike. I support it but wish that there was a different way, feel so sorry for the helpless passengers - it's not their fault. But I also understand the need to protect workers rights, and reasonable terms and conditions. Will the top 5% paid at BA have to take a 40% pay cut, or lose their homes? I don't know the answer, but the cynic in me can guess.

Tempted to formulate radical plans that involve slogans and hardcore leafletting...

JemL who cares about the child sitting next to a man policy BA have - that's not the issue as to why BA are striking. That's got nothing to do with this particular thread.

DH's area of work is facing job cuts where they are already working at minimum staffing levels to maintain safety (yet management want to go a step further and make their jobs even less safe - so they can get their big fat bonuses obviously). Screw public safety and safety of their workforce..as long as the fat cats get their bonuses that's ok then.

lovechoc, did you see in the news that one of the strike-breakers was a trained, Al-Qaida terrorist? He was working for BA as a IT-expert at Newcastle (makes you wonder how much sensitive information he must've had access to!), and jumped to the opportunity to be a temp-crew member on flights during the strike. Thank god for Sotland Yard!

so my point is that striking is definately a necessity in some work environments esp where safety is concerned. it's done for the greater good and not just to cause inconvenience for others, as some like view it.

what kind of world would it be if we just sat back and took what came our way? stand up and be counted I say!

onestonetogo your job is v different to DH's yet still important. both transport related and without either of you, both industries would grind to a halt.

onestonetogo I didn't catch that whole story but sounds pretty dodgy that he managed to get a position with BA. He was obviously trying to get in when attentions were diverted elsewhere.

Lunaticfringe, yes, we all accepted the payfreeze and many of us took unpaid leave. For the record, I have 37 days' leave left to take, and my employes told me that there is no leave available, unless I take it unpaid. I'm sure this is illegal, but we kind of go along with it, and it's not one of te reasons for the strike.

True, cabin crew generally are not a militant bunch. Strike goes against our "caring" mentality, IYSWIM. But we've left with no option, and our CEO has seriously pissed us off. He's a liar, a dictator, a petty arrogant man and, on a personal level, a slimey person who's just lost a lovely family for having had an affair with someone recently (that is not why we're striking, btw!). I hope he gets sacked so BA can get a proper leader.

Oh yes, BA's policy of seating the UM next to the nice lady...who will cut up meat, interpret, take him to the loo, while cabin staff ignore him. I have been that nice lady...

Haven't travelled BA for years due to their policy of treating single women travellers in Club Class like shit:

"Could I have a magazine please?"
"Get it yourself. They're up there."

"Could I have another glass of wine, please?"
"Have you finished that one already? You'll have to wait, I'm busy." (fawning over exec in next row)

Was told to get off plane when I was pregnant as I apparently "looked more pregnant that the doctor's notes said and she didn't believe them or me." I said "If you want me off this plane you will have to physically remove me." Hence sudden rethink.

Told I couldn't put my baby on the seat next to me in club, in her car seat, despite having paid for two club class seats. I lost it this time, and screamed at her that she might ask the man opposite to take his coat off the seat as his coat hadn't paid for a seat.

Haven't flown BA since. DD now 11. I fly a lot. Flight to Montreal, well that'll be Air Canada. New York? Virgin...there are always other airlines.

"He's a liar, a dictator, a petty arrogant man "

LOL - this is just how DH would describe the big chief of his company too. I wonder if they have special schools for these types of managers??

My understanding is that BA wants to remove the cabin crew member who was added to the roster when they brought in the hot towel service.

Before this, there were 14 crew members on a long haul flight. When they added hot towels, the unions successfully negotiated an extra crew member for this tortuous task that was added to their list of duties.

When a company is in financial peril, the last thing they need is for their staff to take industrial action. If they were to go under, then you lose your job. You can apply to work for another airline, but you won't earn as much as you do with BA. Madness.

www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/simon-calder-saga-has-been-a-huge-boost-for-bas-rivals- 1920715.html

simon calder's take - I understand that BA paid up to 2 X of other rivals and that the average BA cabin crew wage was 29 to 30K PA??

Unfortunately I have had bad service on BA like MrsS - but I think it is the unpredictable nature that will determine me not flying BA.

I am not too interested in having a crew member make me a Kir Royal - in my experience, if you compare international service then I have found Cathay, Singapore, Emirates, SA Airways and Air New Zealand crew streets ahead of BA.

as long as you don't get too many scabs crossing the picket line, then the strike action should create the reaction you need in order to get the pay and conditions you deserve from BA bosses. It is sad that employees have to go to this extreme but sometimes needs must.

Still waiting to be convinced about the reasons behind this strike.

Seem to remember an airline called TWA that 'went under' following strike action

Couldn't it happen here in the UK?

There appears to be lot of competition for the business customer, and no frills, short haul customers really don't care about a free drink, when you can stock up post security. Airplanes are really just buses and who needs in flight entertainment on a 2 hour flight?

still don't get it.

I don't support the strike. The reason for this is that right now all BA management are trying to do is to reduce the number of crew by 1 on long-haul flights - perfectly justifiable and legal; and change the contracts that new recruits will come in on - again, seems fair as it's up to the new recruit to decide whether they think it's a good deal & if not, work for someone else.

onestonetogo, you say there are other 'unofficial' reasons for the strike. OK fine but then the time to argue & strike about those reasons is when they become official. Right now, they are just rumours - or as you say they haven't been 'formalised'.

OP, I'm so sorry about your ds's trip.

to the OP I agree with your last statement however I think if BA did not have a monopoly with slots at Heathrow then it would be more of a candidate for going under.

It is the slots it has at Heathrow which will keep it going.

MmeBlueberry, i had been told that too about the hot towel service. I was also told that BA have two more cabin crew members on their flights than other airlines. So by losing one person, they would still be one cabin crew member up on others.

I was also told that the cabin crew currently get automatic promotion without any need for changing their responsibility/job. How many other people can get promoted without taking on extra work/responsibilty first?

You say that the boss is not a nice person but it will take more than a nice person to turn BA around and save jobs and the company.

I think you are mad considering strike action at the moment with the state that the company sounds as though it is in.

Recent governments of both parties have made it incredibly difficult to have an official strike. This difficulty is the compounded by the reluctance of a lot of people to vote for more than token industrial action because of concerns about their jobs etc. BA cabin crew have not had a reputation for militancy in the past and I believe that this decision would not have been taken lightly. Good luck onestonetogo.

YABU

Purely because I support workers right to strike if they are being treated unfairly. I agree that the decision will not have been made lightly.

Disappointing as it must be, op, none of your trips are really essential. I'm sure you will all get over it!

MrsSchadenfreude, sorry about your bad experiences on BA I have never treated a passenger like that, or have witnessed it.
Reg the magazines: we offer newspapers and magazines pre-take off, then leave magazines in the racks for passengers to help themselves to. I can understand how, sometimes, I wouldn't have time to offer you a magazine mid-flight as I'd be too busy with the service. But I'd never say "get it yourself, they're up there".

I find it hard to believe that ,as a woman, you'd get treated differently than male passengers. We pride ourselves in being non-sexist. But I wasn't there, so I can't judge.

You say you were told to get off the plane when pregnant. That's impossible!NBo-one would do that without having first checked and double checked your medical certificate, there's nothing wrong with them double-checking. (I know I looked 9 months pregnant at 16 weeks!)

• you say uou were told your baby couldn't be sat on the car seat you had with you. As I imagine you know, babies from 0 to 1 day before their 2nd b'day MUST sit on your lap for take-off and landing, but can site on a car-seat or similar, on an other seat, during cruise. This is not BA's rule, but British Aviation, and in the interest of your baby's safety.

Re: the unaccompanied minor: you shouldn't have had to look after them, maybe you could've told the cabin crew that this child was in need of all that help? If a child can't feed themselves then their parents shouldn't let them fly alone. There's only so much the crew can do, esp on a full flight.

Mazzy

I still wait to be convinced that they are being unfairly treated

In the long term it seems to me that they are striking their way out into the collapse of BA

pinkfizzle, see my previous posts. The figures for our wages printed in the papers are false.
When they were published, us crew said we should ring our pay office and ask where our money went!
Daftapeth, I don't know about the crew number and hot towels thingy. All I know is that now, whenever we get off the plane and in the queue at customs and come across other crew from other airlines, we always count them. So far, we've never come across another airline with only 14 cabin crew on a 747!

{{ steps away from laptop, as typing so much about work will give her terrible nightmares involving Willie Walsh }}

btw Mazzy

I've passed on your words of comfort to a very tearful DS.

much appreciated

YANBU.

BA definitely hasn't been well run, but striking will just send everyone to Virgin and other carriers.

UNITE are signing BA's death warrant.

I would have more sympathy if BA were making record profits, with huge fat cat bonuses for the directors - but they are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy as it is.

They need to be massively reformed just to have a fighting chance.