Union Head Sends Scathing Letter To British Airways CEO, Threatens Strike

LOL at a strike...I’m sure Walsh is super scared!

They agreed to a ‘B’ scale ten years ago, and I think any pilot with experience in such matters would have advised the FA Union not to go down that path. Yet they did, and here they are, so this is as much their own hole to dig out of as it is the company acting deplorably.

@Lucky - In other good news, Qmiles now have a rolling 36 month expiry based on spend or earn activity.

This is just going to be a never ending thing for airlines and many other industries. Most economies of the world are not doing well and the virus just amplified those problems. People over the years have gotten lazier while expecting more and more for their living standards. Sadly that is no longer occurring for most.

Come on, we got people earning money by doing nothing more than being so called influencers, or even blogging. That isn't even a real job.

I do try hard to stop myself being a grammar Nazi, but it's depressing to find someone else who doesn't know the difference between infers and implies.

Putting that trivia to one side, this letter reflects the shocking reality of the situation: the cabin crew have very little leverage in the face of a company that actually wants to get rid of thousands of them. And with the latest UK job loss statistics making grim reading, this has become an employer's market.

Most strategic managers believe that you should never let a crisis go to waste: BA is clearly of the same view.

Len McCluskey is a Marxist old trade union dinosaur but he controls the UK Labour party given the level of his union's donations to them. Sadly, he just cannot get it through his thick head that industrial action will simply cause even more job losses for his members.

Regardless of one's views as to the merits of the union's demands, the fact of the matter is industrial action is precisely what management wants. They will be glad to cull the ranks.

REALLY NOW. . .Fire them all, enough laid off flight crew members will be happy to join BA and have a job. Unions continue to show their utter stupidity. Why they are going the way of the dinosaur.

I’m very curious to see how IAG will handle the downsizing of its subsidiary airlines with respect to each other - I suspect BA will bear the brunt of any actions even long after COVID-19 has passed.

There are predominantly two unions that cover the majority of employees at BA - the GMB and Unite. Within these two unions are 'branches'. Mixed Fleet Unite for the Mixed Fleet crew. BASSA for the legacy crew. BALPA for the pilots. One for ground staff, office staff, engineers.

On the surface, the threat of industrial action sounds ridiculous. But if you consider the following it could actually be quite successful.

Firstly, although BALPA representing the pilots has secured 'a deal' the overwhelming majority of pilots are NOT happy with it and it wouldn't be crazy to see some form of rebellion in their ballot if they are emboldened by what other employee groups and unions are doing.

Secondly, we have the engineers. They can make or break any industrial action. You don't just need pilots and cabin crew to dispatch an aircraft. If enough licensed engineers went on strike they could effectively ground what there is of the operation currently.

Thirdly, there's the media coverage. BA is obviously gagging for customers to book flights with them in the future. The mere threat of strikes turns people off of booking.

@ Duck Ling, I totally get your point that a strike might have some impact. But the impact is much less if you operate at 30% of capacity, as compared to 105% ... I guess BA can almost maintain the current level of operations, just with non unionized staff. There might be one or another unfortunate cancellation, e.g. if no engineer can be found at short term, but in general I would not expect too many difficulties.

I was totally in sympathy with this Union Boss until he decided to turn into a racist British bigot and lecture the (Spanish born) CEO on how British culture supposedly works and how it’s apparently more evolved and better than where he comes from. British racism rears it ugly head on the left and the right. So typical.

@chase wrote:

"They agreed to a ‘B’ scale ten years ago, and I think any pilot with experience in such matters would have advised the FA Union not to go down that path. Yet they did, and here they are, so this is as much their own hole to dig out of as it is the company acting deplorably."

Therein lies the rub.

10 years ago BA and the other airlines were in the midst of a financial crisis caused by the recession of 2008 onward. BA went to the unions for "help" and the flight attendants allowed the two-tier agreement to proceed as their share of "helping out". This was a 'for new hires' agreement not ever intended to become universal.

Their decision of the union and flight attendants to help out post 2008 is now being thrown back in their face. So to say now that they were stupid to help out back then is to ignore the fact that BA now wants to penalize them for being stupid and helping out.

There may be more to this that is not on the surface but from what I have read I certainly sympathize with the Legacy Flight Attendants on this one. BA is being very poor spirited.

@Azamaraal - what am I missing here? The unions said that they were only willing to allow cuts to future contracts - new employees - meaning that legacy FA maintained their salaries. How was that help? That’s just pure selfishness and honestly wit the quality of BA staff would not shed a tear to let these go.

This is making me extremely nervous. Can they just wait until after Sept 4th?? I'm moving to London an my flight is on Sept 4th. They did drop the A380 to a 777-200 with the old business class. Which I figured they'd do, but was hoping to have a likely last flight on the A380.

@Lucky, should I transfer all my BA miles to Iberia before BA makes another foolish move? Seriously! I am not wanting to wait for the worse outcome.

British Airways is and always will be at the top of my "Don't Fly List." Poor management, and deplorable airplanes.

@Derek
It’s a bit weird to see anti-Spanish racism in the letter when the proposed solution to dealing with Cruz is instead to deal with a more senior Spanish manager at IAG’s Madrid HQ?

Racism is vile, of course, but it’s tiresome when people go hunting for racism that isn’t there...

@Greg says: - July 28, 2020 at 8:28 pm

What other airlines would you put in this category?

The nice Paul says: July 29, 2020 at 4:21 am

Why is he highlighting the anti-Spanish tone in the letter if he is not racist?

How BA have gone about this is questionable, whilst there are a large number of legacy crew on the "golden runway" contract taking home well over 3.5 -4k a month, there are also those legacy crew who really don't have all the perks and pensions the older ones have. Legacy Crew have clung on to this great contract for years and IAG have rubbed their hands together when this opportunity came along. The unions have really let the members down, making ridiculous demands as a condition of even starting talks, Red Len is out of touch and as for his constant references to "British this and British that"!! BA dont care if they strike, IAG will already have plans for Iberia and Aerlingus to pick up any slack, they have plenty of spare capacity

When I moved to the U.K. I was taken by surprise at how much more militant some the unions were and also the bad relationship between management and employees were in certain companies. BA is one, but Transport for London and the various train operators as well. Strikes are very common.

Unions can be a force for good, and a good working relationship between them an management is imperative. In my home country the level of union membership is much higher than the U.K., but we don’t see many strikes. Salaries are higher, benefits and holiday allowances as well. The amount of working poor is low. If you look at France, union membership is actually quite low but they are also suffering from some very militant unions. SAS has long been plagued by militant unions as well, but it’s mainly a problem in Denmark and less so in Sweden and Norway.

The U.K. has a huge problem with working poor, and many people make shockingly low salaries. It’s not a cheap country, with housing and transport costs amongst the highest in Europe. This move by BA to fire and rehire is another example of this problem. I agree that the airline is over staffed, but there are different ways of going about it.

@Rebecca
Sorry, I genuinely don’t understand your question. What do you mean?

@ Andy. Agree with you but the future booking/customer uncertainty aspect is crucial as well. Examples of this can be found in the comments to this very thread:

'This is making me extremely nervous. Can they just wait until after Sept 4th?? I’m moving to London an my flight is on Sept 4th. '

'@Lucky, should I transfer all my BA miles to Iberia before BA makes another foolish move? Seriously! I am not wanting to wait for the worse outcome.'

There are a lot of airlines chasing very few customers at the moment. People will actively avoid considering BA if now they also have to factor potential IA into their plans along with COVID/border restrictions.

Especially as the letter from the Unite Union boss mentions: '.....avoid months/years of industrial unrest'.

Obviously Len can't do anything about supply and demand while Covid19 is around. He doesn't have a leg to stand on with his threats. But to keep his job, he will have to sable rattle to certain degree. Unfortunately for those who are in A crew, the boat had sailed. I don't see they have any leverage. Going forward, the effect of Covid19 means working as a BA flight crew should be seen as a job NOT a career. It's one of those you work for 5 years, travel the world, and move onto something else.

I predict due to the loss of legacy crew, service standard in F will go down substantially. Unless the final destination is London, people will opt to fly with Lufthansa or Air France from US.

@Kevin 'But to keep his job, he will have to sable rattle to certain degree.'. Len actually announced his retirement earlier in the year (pre COVID lockdown).

If he calls a strike Cruz and Walsh have what they want and will fire everybody. Better not make any foolish moves!

I'm a union member (albeit in a different industry) than these BA employees, but I have to stand with them philosophically and emotionally. As a former union rep myself, the one thing I've learned is that when management and labor work together, they can compromise and avoid the worst of all possible outcomes. From reading up on what Mr. Cruz has been doing, it clearly seems to be that he's doing anything but working together. That he seems to be following a scorched Earth policy is clear. This will only anger BA and BA-related employees and doesn't bode well for labor relations into the future.

Yes, its easy to blame the pandemic, but its also possible for airlines to lessen the blow of cuts. Many US airlines are offering early retirements and voluntary furloughs instead of "fire and rehire." They are at least trying to find some compromise or alternate "solution." In my work, management started transferring people around willy nilly. Our union hit them with a cease and desist order yesterday for violating the contract. We're willing to help, but we would like to be consulted, to help ensure that such movements, furloughs, etc., are fair and conducted legally, that's all. Mr. Cruz could do the same. It wouldn't hurt him, and it would engender some positive relations with the rank and file.

And you wonder why people hate unions! Paying attention in grammar class was not Len’s greatest failure - he’s utterly stupid.