Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

about the forthcoming BA strike?

903 replies

iwastooearlytobeayummymummy · 15/03/2010 16:21

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?

OP posts:
whifflegarden · 30/03/2010 19:34

eatsushi

Original poster
iwastooearlytobeayummymummy · 30/03/2010 20:15

Hi OP here,

I can't pretend to have read all the posts, but I could never have predicted that my whinge would have generated such passion on all sides.

It's been a really interesting debate with points well made, and unfortunatley some below the belt ones too.

I am grateful to those BA staff that meant DS could do his trip, and as a result DH and I had a brilliant time away too.

I hope that BA does recover from this affair
but the gist of many ordinary posters/passengers here suggest a loss of confidence and I can't help think that the actions of a few will prove very detrimental in the long term.

OP posts:
Silver1 · 30/03/2010 20:21

OSTG can't break the strike yet-it's her month off

I too hope that BA recover well from the strike-and that customers remember not the strikers who tried to ruin their travel plans, but the thousands of volunteers who tried to save those flights and keep the airline running. Those who worked through and volunteered are the real spirit of the airline.

Silver1 · 31/03/2010 14:26

A little glimpse of what OSTG and her pals have been up to-the bus is on it's way to a march that ended in volunteers and workers being bullied at the Aurora Hotel, where they were being stationed on standby and rest.

sudoku · 31/03/2010 14:50

That video is shocking... Grown men and women behaving like animals...

Doodleydoo · 31/03/2010 15:03

Just caught up with the posts, and from reading them all I think if jellyheadjulia had been on the forum earlier with her posts then perhaps just perhaps it wouldn't have turned into the the scrum that it did. Someone else came in with no valid points to raise, and then claiming that making a kir royale was a very important skill for cc.... and all the jibes and childish comments, did not really help.

Anyway have found reading pandora's and jellyheadjulias post very interesting. Sadly I still have very little sympathy for cc, if we weren't in a recession then perhaps, but everyone is having to do their bit in every single market place. Also there are so many comments about how WW is ruining BA, but when he came on board BA was barely functioning as a company, he has been trying to fix it not break it even more. And frankly I wouldn't approve of him shagging the whole office but I can't see how it affects his ability to run a successful company.

And after all of this has anyone got anywhere? isn't the likelihood going to be that more strikes will occur, with cc getting less pay and even less public support? Oh well.

Silver1 · 31/03/2010 16:19

I don't think when she started posting OSTG said anything that wasn't drummed into Cabin Crew from the start of their careers. There is a mentality with BA cabin crew that is beginning to unwind that says only trust/ask your union representative. That is what OSTG seemed to do.
I also think that the quality of posts nosedived after the first strike days.

I also wonder after watching that video, and seeing the WW as Hitler masks, the WW as a pig mask, and really quite disturbingly the WW as Myra Hyndley pictures how anyone can think the strikers are still looking for a resolution. How can any of them go back to the company that WW is CEO of with such resentment.

The sad thing is that the issues jellyheadjulia and I think ostg had for going on strike may now never be resolved, because of the low impact of the strike, and because of the increasingly disturbing behaviour of the picketers.

whifflegarden · 31/03/2010 19:39

.....and because the losses from the strike have to be recouped from somewhere....

Is it true about further strikes April 14th?

Original poster
iwastooearlytobeayummymummy · 31/03/2010 20:27

I'm just wondering if I should start a new AIBU to suggest that the railway workers have nothing to strike over?

also what is their wives' scarf of choice?

OP posts:
Silver1 · 31/03/2010 21:07

That is the suggested date Whifflegarden but all of a sudden UNITE are being very coy about whether they will call another strike date.
There are cabin crew steaming- they were happy with their T&Cs and content to do one crew down. Now they will have things imposed on them because 21% of their colleagues didn't go to work and therefore have cost the company a lot of money that as you say now needs to be recouping.

iwastooearlytobeayummymummy I double double dare you~!

Onestonetogo · 31/03/2010 21:59

Hi all, this thread is a bit like Eastenders; you miss a few episodes and when you watch it again you notice nothing much has happened

Right, for those of you who suggested perhaps I had decided to volunteer to fly and break the strike- that is just about as likely as Elvis announcing a world-tour! Ain't gonna happen.

I feel I have said everything I had to contribute to this, and answered all the questions, so I'll leave this thread until there are any news with regards to more strikes. Last I heard was, yes, 14th April, but it hasn't been confirmed yet.

Hasta la victoria! Willie get lost (like all the luggage that went missing when T5 opened!!!).

Silver1 · 31/03/2010 22:16

So OSTG were you on the bus in the video? I reckon you were the blonde lady you see in the beginning

And I think you should at least offer a reasonable perspective on the masks-they are quite disturbing.

Come on we are all friends by now aren't we?

Onestonetogo · 01/04/2010 16:12

To all posters on this thread: read the letter written by BA's premium passenger Mr Mamad Kashani-Akhavan on today's Financial Times

Silver1 · 01/04/2010 16:45

Or read ALL of the negative opinions BA cabin crew surfacing all over the place from economy (they are the ones you sneer at) and premium passengers.

DH whilst doing your job, bless him, was told by quite a few passengers it was the best service they'd had for years, really helpful and friendly. Although I did make him practice asking if I wanted tea or coffee lots

Anyway what about the bus video-Hitler and Myra Hyndley masks? What are your thoughts on those?

I have to say I am pleased to see you back though- I was beginning to suspect you might be a CUK troll.
Mix a cocktail, deliver a baby (but not hold it) and lay a nice table all in a day's work. Before you did your pedicure (by yourself unless in India) and then dispatched charitable donations (perhaps BA's) to the street children of Bombay (which is easier to say than Mumbai)

catinthehat2 · 01/04/2010 18:11

Ah, where have I heard that distinctive surname before?

What an exciting international life the Kashani-Akhavans lead

If you want us to read a letter in the FT you have to provide a link or we start surfing round for other stuff.

Silver1 · 01/04/2010 18:37

Cabin crew sure know how to pick them

eatsushi · 01/04/2010 20:27

OSTG I disagree with your viewpoint entirely but I do admire you for engaging on this thread, despite the obvious lack of support for your views and you are entitled to your remain private.

sudoku · 01/04/2010 22:13

Come on, CUK, surely you can liven this thread up??!!

(Silver1, happy to see you're a secret observer of MN like me!)

Silver1 · 02/04/2010 00:30

So this is the cabin crew marching to the Aurora Hotel, where the workers and volunteers were based to cover flights. They harassed and tormented cabin crew at hotel windows and outside the lobby
NICE

What is truly shocking is that as the union reps march past the cameras they cover their faces-but don't seem to warn the CC to do the same.

Some cheery news lots of BA engineers are leaving UNITE because
1 They resent the union telling the press and CC that the older aircraft are badly maintained (by UNITE members)
2) They resent paying a levy for a strike that could have and might still cost them their jobs if the airline goes bust.

Silver1 · 02/04/2010 00:34

Just to clarify- the reason for my post is that it's bit rich for cabin crew to play the bullied victim when they are happy to do this to their colleagues who are working-and happy to parade the bus load of hecklers in the other video that I posted.

pandora69 · 02/04/2010 08:11

As I said before - when intelligent negotiation breaks down, protest with dignity.

Silver1 · 02/04/2010 17:32

Sadly, that's all well and good Pandora69-but I am not sure the cabin crew have benefited from "intelligent negotiation" and I have yet to see a dignified protest from them.

pandora69 · 02/04/2010 19:08

Quotes from 'other places;'

"If I could only ever fly with crew who picketed, this job would be truly great again."

And another quote;

"If I could just fly with everyone who decided to use their brain and turn up, this job would be truly great again."

Oh, the irony!

Silver1 · 03/04/2010 00:20

As long as everyone remembers to wash their hands I think DH will feel his job is great again

The funny thing is everyone on the picket line is happy- everyone who is working is happy, why not just leave things as they are?

MunchkinsMumof2 · 03/04/2010 11:00

There have been some disgusting things written on the BASSA forum about cabin crew volunteers and a crew member was removed from a flight this week for, amongst other things, refusing to shake the Captain's hand in the briefing room. The striking crew have now had t-shirts and keyrings made with XXXXXX on as that's what it says on their wiped rosters. The intimidation is ongoing and the breakdown of CRM is truly disturbing.