Events | 2010.03.21
Labour desperate to end BA strike with election looming
Gordon Brown\'s officials in close contact with union chiefs as Tories try to stoke row over party\'s funding
Desperate attempts to end the BA cabin crew strike were being mounted by government ministers last night as Labour battled to prevent the dispute from wrecking its preparations for the general election.
Gordon Brown\'s officials were in close touch with Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of the Unite union, throughout yesterday amid hopes that a settlement could be reached that would prevent the action spreading into next weekend. But sources close to the dispute said last night there was no basis for a deal and that no further talks were scheduled.
Yesterday the Tories turned up the pressure on Labour over the strike and its links with Unite by launching a new advertising campaign showing Brown dressed as a BA pilot under the headline "Gordon is doing sweet BA".
The political row surrounding the dispute deepened last night after it emerged that Unite is to give the Labour party £4m to help fund its general election campaign. The union agreed the deal with the Labour leadership a few weeks ago as Labour desperately sought the cash to mount an effective campaign against the Conservatives. The £4m represents half of the money that the unions have been asked for by Labour. Up to £2m is said to have been requested from Unison, the public services union, and another £2m from the GMB general union. Eric Pickles, the Conservative party chairman, told the Observer : "When travellers are facing the effects of Unite\'s militant action it is beyond belief that Brown can have the brass neck to keep his crumbling Labour government afloat with cash from these union barons."
Labour concerns about the strike will be reinforced by an ICM poll for BBC Radio 4\'s Broadcasting House, which shows only 25% of people say the action is justified, 60% say it is unjustified and 15% are undecided.
BA launched a strike-breaking operation of unprecedented scale yesterday, although Unite claimed that the airline had managed to fly only a third of its normal scheduled departures.
The airline claimed that half of the cabin crew rostered to work yesterday had turned up for their shifts and announced the reinstatement of more flights.
But one Unite official said the disruption caused, with hundreds of flights cancelled over the weekend, would be a wake-up call to BA\'s chief executive, Willie Walsh. "The next three days will determine whether or not we get back around the table," the official said.
Passengers at BA\'s Terminal 5 base at Heathrow airport were greeted by an array of unusual airline names on departure boards, as the likes of Transavia, Astraeus and Titan were brought in to carry passengers to their destinations.
The airline expected to fly 65% of passengers, or about 120,000 people, over the course of the weekend. A spokesman said that operations at Heathrow were "continuing to go well", with a full schedule operating at Gatwick.
BA customers at Terminal 5 were divided about the strike. "I am not anti-trade union – I have been a member of one for 20 years – but I don\'t understand what Unite is trying to achieve at a time when so many people are losing their jobs," said Barbara Bond, a consultant waiting for her flight to Hyderabad. Her return flight next week could be cancelled due to the next wave of strikes, with a four-day walkout scheduled to start next Saturday if no agreement is reached by then.
Hundreds of BA cabin crew attended a rally yesterday at their temporary strike headquarters at Bedfont football club, a few hundred metres away from Heathrow\'s southern runway.
The mood at Bedfont\'s packed social club was defiant and upbeat. One air stewardess, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: "This can continue. It will go into the summer if necessary, until we get back round the table."
Unite\'s assistant general secretary, Len McCluskey, accused Walsh of behaving like an "industrial dictator" in the dispute over reductions in staffing levels on board British Airways aircraft. "He is more like a 19th-century mill owner than a 21st century chief executive."
Police said that the protests, including four picket lines at Heathrow, had been peaceful.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/[...]our-bid-end-ba-strike-election
