Cabin crew begin voting on BA offer
By politics.co.uk staff
Cabin crew at the beleaguered British Airways (BA) airline begin having their say on an offer which could end the ongoing dispute over cost-cutting.
Holidaymakers have been hit by disruption in recent months as the Unite union coordinated a series of strikes against BA.
The removal of travel perks for staff who participated in an earlier strike fuelled the conflict.
But an offer made last month by BA managers, which would clearly separate existing staff’s pay and pensions rights from future new starts, offered an opportunity to end the clash.
Voting begins today and will last at least a week. Union leaders have not recommended the offer because of the refusal to restore “travel arrangements”.
“The union have made no recommendations and I think it’s a positive move that the cabin crew are being given the chance to express themselves in a confidential form of ballot,” BA’s group treasurer and head of investor relations George Stinnes said.
Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley said on June 27th that BA had paid the price for choosing “conflict over consensus”.
The full extent of the cost became clearer today, as BA stated industrial action had resulted in an 11.1% fall in passenger numbers during June.
