British Airways staff vote for strike over Christmas
(Telegraph): More than a million British Airways passengers have had their Christmas holiday travel plans thrown into chaos after the airline’s cabin crew voted to strike. The first walkout could take place as early as Monday, unless agreement can be reached between the airline and union negotiators. Industrial action was confirmed by the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (Bassa) ahead of the formal announcement of the ballot, by the cabin crew union, Unite. The industrial action by around 13,500 cabin crew will also heap misery on passengers, at one of the busiest times of the year. At best they face days of uncertainty while the union maps out its strategy.
Category: Business
Those comments about the strike by BA staff seems to be made by employers (or persons who would like to be) who abhor seeing employees form themselves into a force to be reckoned with. Why should the employers have all the say when it is because of the combination of employees and employers they either make or break the business? Why is it ok for employers to form their own organisations but it is a problem when the employees do so? Give me a break. I would like to know what is the salaries of the top executives of BA as compared to the workers. That would probably shed some light as to why they want to strike. Unions are good just as much as the Chamber of Commerce (or whatever name the employers want to call themselves when they form their associations). It only creates a balance and prevents abuse from happening. Here in Cayman there are situations where employees are treated unjustly and there is no recourse for them most of the time as they are afraid to speak out and lose their jobs. Let us strike a balance.
The top executives of BA have a skill set that has very high value in terms of scarcity and impact on bottom line. Cabin staff don’t. That is the difference between the capitalist model and the socialist model. There is a world of difference between strategic decisions in respect of routing ininternational air travel and offering people a drink with their chicken pasta bake.
cabin crew are there for YOUR safety, getting served a cold one is a bonus.
Doesn’t it scare you to think that these idiots are the same people BA entrust with your travelling safety?
Personally, I swore never to fly BA again after a series of mishaps (and the decision by BA not to make even a half-hearted apology for the inconvenience caused) on a trip to Cayman way back in the days when they were still using DC10s on the route. I have had to break that vow twice since – both trips were memorable only because of more problems.
As they say, "We know you have a choice……..," and I suspect a lot of people will vote with their feet if this strike goes ahead.
Next time someone wants to bang on (and on and on) about Caymanians and their sense of entitlement should stop and think about British trade unions like this who think they’re entitled to higher than the industry average for their job (which is basically little more than a busboy) and are willing to ruin a lot of people’s Christmas holidays to prove it. Shame on the fools who lead Unite union and shame on the greedy cabin crew for their supremely selfish action – a strike over Christmas! Not only are they screwing the passengers and ensuring they never book on BA again but they are fighting an ailing airline at a time when all airlines are struggling – in other words, putting the jobs of all those hardworking BA employees who are NOT striking in further jeopardy. Shame, shame, shame! I can’t even begin to express how disgusted I am. BA should sack the lot of them. Let them get a job as an actual waiter/waitress, see how they like the wages then.
Agree with your comments on the bullying trade unions. Unfortunately like with all the other ex-public sector bodies in the UK (Royal Mail, Railtrack etc) the Unions have too much power and despite their employees already having much better pay and conditions than similar workers in the private sector, they still know they have the power to strike or go slow or whatever to get their way and guarantee fat pay rises and perks.
The private sector in the UK rarely allows employees to join trade unions nowadays so that they have no collective means to fight. This of course, has good and bad points (good for employer, bad for employee) but is essential to keep the businesses competitive and make sure they don’t get bogged down like the likes of BA and Royal mail who make huge losses and will continue to do so because of he greedy unions and their staff.
I don’t see the similarity with the Caymanian entitlement culture though. In BA and Railtrack etc we are talking about a load of civil servants who refuse to become real hard workers. Whereas in Cayman there is two generations of people that assume because they are Caymanian they don’t need to wash, or go to school or put in effort into any part of their lives because it is their birthright to get a top executive job despite being incompetent, lazy and an uneducated dribbling idiot.
This kind of behavious got wiped out in 40-50 years ago elsewhere in the world. In the UK there was a massive influx of Indians and Europeans throughout the 60-70s and onwards. At first there was great resistance and similar comments that you would read on here today ‘They’re stealing our jobs’ etc etc. Despite the fact that they came and did jobs that the locals were either not qualified to do (doctors particularly) and the lower jobs that nobody was prepared to do (cleaning, sweeping, dirty jobs).
In Cayman this attitude is still visible. I know that most of the clothing, hair styles and attitudes are out of fashion by 20 years, but you should really pull yourselves together and get with the 21st century program.
JUST WHAT YOU WANT WHEN YOU HAVE PAID ALMOST $1000.00 for A TICKET HOME!
They are not going on strike now.
Brilliant! : (
Oh for a Margaret Thatcher to put these SOBs in their place and if necessary close the bloody airline down and put them ALL out of work. Reagan did it to the air traffic controllers who tried to hold him and the country to ransom and the vast majority of them never worked as controllers ever again.