British Airways Will Hold Out in Dispute
Willie Walsh, the CEO of British Airways, has given striking cabin crew a clear message that he will continued to fight as long as it takes to win their dispute. He spoke at the International Air Transport Association annual summit in Berlin, saying that he doesn’t think they have ever stood up to the unions in the past and just told them ‘No’. The airline will hold out and continue building up how many flights they operate until the cabin crew and unions back down, he continued.
This doesn’t have anything to do with travel, Walsh explained, as that’s not the problem at the heart of this dispute. It’s about making sure that the company has a cost base that’s on an equal footing as their competitors, he continued. The airline industry needs to change, he added, and they can’t ignore the inefficiency they see.
In response to the speech from Walsh, a Unite spokesman said that the threats suggest the airline’s management is getting even more macho and pulls into question how it will deliver a solution to the dispute. Walsh even suggested that they would start axing striking staff, saying they would see what happens.
British Airways reported a £531 million pretax loss for the previous financial year, which ended March 31. Meanwhile, they are losing about £7 million every day the cabin crew walkout. Total, their staff has taken industrial action for 22 days, with the final planned strike ending today. Unite has warned that the airline and its passengers may face another ballot and industrial action through the summer, which is one of the busiest seasons of the year.
However, it sounds like some of the cabin crew are deciding that these strikes aren’t the best thing. British Airways has reported that, during the strikes, more and more staff showed up for work, which has allowed them to operate 80% of their long-haul flights at Heathrow Airport. London City and Gatwick airports’ operations have remained unaffected.
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