Just what is the BA dispute about?

On Monday 17th May 2010, British Airways won a High Court injunction to prevent members of its cabin crew from going on strike.

The first of these strikes was planned to begin Tuesday 18th May, lasting for 5 days and finally ending on Saturday 22nd May, with further three further strikes beginning on 24 May, 30 May and 5 June. British Airways' cabin crew union, Unite, will now go to the High Court to try to have the injunction overturned.

So just what is at the centre of the dispute?

In November, British Airways reduced the number of cabin crew on its long-haul flights from 15 to 14 and introduced a two-year pay freeze from 2010.

The cabin crew union said this would hit passenger service, as well as the earnings and career prospects of cabin crew.

The airline also wanted to introduce new contracts for fresh recruits and newly promoted staff. These included a single on-board management grade, no seniority, promotion on merit, and pay set at market rate plus 10%.

This would still see new recruits paid significantly less than current staff.

According to a 2009 survey for the Civil Aviation Authority, British Airways' cabin crew are well paid in industry terms with average earnings of £29,900 a year, including bonuses and allowances, compared with £14,400 at Virgin Atlantic.

Unite now says it has reached an 'in principle' agreement with the British Airways on the changes, but the stumbling blocks are travel concessions and disciplinary action.

When cabin crew last went on strike in March, the airline said singled out staff who took part in the strike and announced they would lose their airline travel perks permanently, including no longer getting the right to buy heavily discounted flight tickets.

The union is fighting for these travel perks to be re-introduced and condemned the airline for taking this disciplinary action against more than 50 union members.

Why is British Airways making the changes?

British Airways says that it must restructure and permanently reduce its costs. This is no different to any large company in this economic downturn and is what is also happening at other airlines around the world.

British Airways is losing significant amounts of money and recently announced it had lost £342m befor tax for the nine months to the end of December 2009, compared with profits of £70m for the same period a year earlier.

Over the past few years, large numbers of air travellers have been switching to low-cost airlines, especially during the recession. This is particularly true of business travellers who are traditionally British Airways' core customers.

The airline's chief executive Willie Walsh said this had been the "most difficult year in the history of the aviation industry" and "operational changes" are necessary to improve the performance of the business.

Globally, the company says it will have shed nearly 5,000 jobs worldwide as quickly as it possibly can.

Willie Walsh agreed to work for nothing for the month of July last year, in a show of solidarity with the 800 workers who BA say also volunteered to do the same.

British Airways is also experimenting with cost-cutting and surplus charges, such as not serving food on some flights and charging passengers for placing a second bag in the hold in common with many other airlines charging policy.

Why was British Airways granted an injunction halting the strikes?

BA lawyers successfully argued that Unite had broken the law on a very small technicality over the way it conducted the strike ballot.

Mr Justice McCombe said the union had not "properly complied" with the requirement to "send everyone eligible to vote details of the exact breakdown" of the result, including spoilt ballot papers.

The union's joint general secretary Tony Woodley said only a small number of its 11,000 members had not been told about 11 spoilt papers and the court decision "brings into question whether we have the right to strike in this country, which is a fundamental human right".

What will be Unite's next move?

Unite has been to the Court of Appeal to try to overturn the High Court ruling. The judgement is due on Thursday 20th May.

A successful appeal could see the previously announced strikes go ahead later in the month, but if Unite's efforts fail it intends to ballot members again on industrial action.

If fresh strike dates are set, they could potentially see strikes take place in July the UK's school summer holiday period.

But there are hopes that the delay will see British Airways and Unite resume discussions in an final attempt to bring the dispute to an end.

What effect will any future strikes have?

They will undoubtedly cause major disruption to travelling businesses and holiday makers.

Domestic flights are normally the first to be cancelled in any disruption and airlines try to prioritise long-haul flights.

Meanwhile, there might still be some disruption as BA gets back to running its scheduled services.

With public sector pay set for a 2 year freeze and the economic recovery in the UK still in a very fragile state, it is difficult to find much sympathy around for these strikes and even less for staff who are have salaries that are the very top their industry has to offer.

One thing is certain, the strikers must not be allowed to bring down one of the UK's most iconic brands and best loved companies.

 

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