Events | 2010.03.21
BA strike day two - live updates
As the strike enters its second day there are conflicting claims from BA and Unite on the level of disruption. Meanwhile, the government is trying to end the dispute and the Tories continue to highlight Labour\'s links with the union. Follow live updates
1.41pm:
Tony Woodley says he is still confident of an agreement, but only if BA agrees to talks. "We have got the experience and the understanding to reach an agreement, but only if Willie Walsh gets round the table", he told Sky News in an interview from Liverpool.
He also expressed dismay at BA\'s use of planes and crews from the no frills airline Ryanair during the strike. "God help this company," Woodley said.
1.32pm:
Last week the shadow children\'s secretary, Michael Gove accused Unite of "paralysing British Airways" with its strike threats.
Today the Sunday People has dugged up a picture of Gove on strike as a young journalist .
Charlie Whelan thinks it\'s funny .
1.22pm:
Our picture desk has put together a new gallery of images of the strike.
1.03pm:
More claims and counter claims. BA has denied Unite\'s accusations of intimidation against cabin crew. Unite says 49 flights from Heathrow have taken off with no passengers on board.
12.18pm:
Woodley has also written to Unite\'s cabin crew members urging them to "stay strong" and not to be intimidated by BA\'s bullying .
Dear Colleagues,
Let me first of all congratulate you on yesterday\'s magnificent start to the industrial action which has been forced on you. You have stood up and stood strong for your rights your dignity and your pride in the face of a bullying management and a malicious Tory media.
My message to you this morning is I know it is difficult but stay strong, be brave. Don\'t be intimidated. Don\'t let the unfair abuse get to you. Remember – Unite did not want this dispute. We don\'t want to hurt the travelling public or damage your employer. But you have a management which unfortunately seems to want capitulation not a negotiated settlement. Under such circumstances, your cause is just and your action is legal. You cannot be sacked for taking this strike action.
I am ashamed when I see you having to conceal your faces as you enter a union meeting to avoid identification and when you have to talk to the television with your back to the camera for fear of reprisals. Willie Walsh seems to forget he is in Britain, not Burma. He talks about respect – he should practice what he preaches.
More importantly, let me explain to you clearly – there was no negotiated agreement on offer. The take-it-or-leave-it "offer" on the table last Friday disappointed me greatly because some progress had been made and if the management team, which already had their coats on ready for a walk-out, had been prepared to continue talking a solution could have been reached. But in the event BA reverted back to imposition not negotiation.
As a leader with forty years experience as an industrial negotiator the offer was not, in my judgement and in all honesty, one I could have recommended to myself, never mind you. Specifically, it would not have given you the protection you are entitled to expect in respect of the allocation of your routes, destinations and time off and to a degree pay when "new fleet" comes in, still less your basic pay rates into the future. Additionally, we reached no agreement on dispensation to retain your democratic strike mandate as legally-valid even had we put the offer to a ballot.
It is now crucial that you all stay solid with the union, even if you are scared by management\'s tactics, or just conned by some of the phoney PR around the dispute. I know that the vast majority of you are supporting each other, and I pledge that your union Unite is putting all its resources and strength into supporting your dispute and securing a decent agreement.
For the few of you – and on all our information it is a small minority, contrary to the company\'s "spin" – who have gone into work, I ask you: Think again. Stand by your colleagues and come back to join the dispute. To those working out of Gatwick remember this: The only way in the long-term to secure and maintain decent crew levels, transfer and route opportunities and improve pay, terms and conditions is by having a strong union that can represent your interests. It will not be done by a company bribe or promises made purely to encourage strike-breaking.
To all of you, let me make it clear that this dispute will end in a negotiated settlement, and that settlement must include a framework for the reintroduction of travel concessions – not a privilege, but custom-and-practice – which BA are removing from you.
Today, I will be appealing to British Airways at board level to take matters in hand and restart negotiations to reach an agreement which would allow the strike scheduled for next weekend to be averted and put your airline on the road to recovery. I know that is what you all want, and it is what the travelling public expect. We have said all along that negotiations, not litigation, intimidation nor confrontation is the way forward. BA must understand that capitulation is not on the menu either.
Stay strong, and I hope to be joining you on the picket line tomorrow.
Tony Woodley, joint general secretary, Unite
12.11pm:
Tony Woodley has written to the chairman BA, Martin Broughton, urging the board to "use their influence" to help resolve the dispute. On Friday Woodley accused "hawks" on the board, including Willie Walsh, of trying to wage war on Unite.
12.00pm:
BA has suspended or disciplined 38 crew members , during the dispute with Unite, the union claims in a new dossier.
Unite, assistant general secretary, Len McCluskey, said: "Cabin crew under the management of Willie Walsh have been victims of a disgraceful witch-hunt. The bullying and harassment set out in our dossier shows the lengths BA will go to gag and intimidate cabin crew and destroy trade unionism."
11.41am:
Emily has boarded her plane. She texted this 39 minutes after it should have taken off.
Have boarded, which took a long time as ground staff obviously stretched. So far have counted four cabin crew - although there might be more. Guessing we will be an hour late but take off slots are clearly not a problem.
11.26am:
Tony Woodley is expect to make a speech in Liverpool at midday. He is likely to call for more talks, according to Dan.
11.22am:
There\'s been more political reaction:
Speaking to Sky News foreign secretary David Miliband said:
"We need them to return to the negotiating table and we need the strike to be ended as soon as possible".
"We deplore the strike...the way to resolve these disputes is through negotiation. It\'s damaging for the company, it\'s damaging obviously for the crews and it\'s damaging for the country."
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said the government should back cabin crew crossing picket lines to carry on working.
"The last thing we need when an economic recovery is what we are all hoping for - when economic inactivity has been rising, and the number of people who are not employed is rising - this really is the last thing the British economy needs, so I think the government should be much more forthright."
11.00am:
Emily\'s flight to New York should be taking off by now. It\'s not. She texts:
Still waiting, no boarding, no announcements, no-one seems too bothered, yet. Delays seem to be running at least half an hour behind. Probably more...Everyone who is flying has clearly prepared themselves for the possibility of delays.
10.54am:
Dan Milmo, our transport correspondent, assesses the conflicting claims.
It was a day of claim and counterclaim down at Heathrow yesterday. Unite said T5 was a ghost town while BA claimed half the rostered cabin crew turned up, allowing the airline to reinstate some flights, and that the reduced schedule at its main airport ran smoothly.
Well, T5 wasn\'t deserted and BA has admitted that the 25,000 daily passengers unable to get on planes - it says around 50,000 did - have almost certainly made alternative plans days ago.
So in that sense, the damage has already been done. But the airline has not ground to a total halt, even if it took teams of jet2 cabin crew - incongruously gathering at T5\'s Costa Coffee yesterday - to help get passengers away.
Yesterday\'s flurry of announcements is about building as much pressure as possible on the other side: a deal has to be done at some point. One side wants to cause as much damage as possible by grounding planes, while the other wants to achieve the same effect - by flying them.
10.51am:
Emily has reached it to the boarding gates for her 11am flight to New York. She seems to be getting a little anxious.
At the boarding gates now - things are very quiet here
Boarding for my flights is meant to close in ten minutes but hasn\'t actually opened yet, so I think this is where delays are probably happening,
There are about 120 people waiting for boarding on my flight which isn\'t that many for a 777 I think. There\'s a lack of announcements, but people are pretty quiet.
10.48am:
BA is still bullish about its strike-breaking operation. It has put out this statement:
Our contingency plans are continuing to work well on Sunday morning around the world.
All longhaul aircraft were able to depart from their overseas airports as planned on Saturday evening and are arriving as normal at Heathrow and Gatwick on Sunday morning with many thousands of customers.
There has been no evidence of industrial action at any overseas airport directed at British Airways flights.
Our planned schedule of departures at Heathrow and Gatwick is also continuing to work well.
We have added additional flights into our schedule at both Heathrow and Gatwick and customers can now book onto these flights.
We continue to operate a full Boeing 777 longhaul programme from the UK to more than 30 destinations around the world and are adding in several extra Boeing 747 flights, due to the numbers of crew reporting for work.
Our charter operators are also continuing to work well and are integrating with our own shorthaul flying schedules at Heathrow and Gatwick.
On Sunday, cabin crew are continuing to report as normal at Gatwick, and Heathrow levels remain above what we need to operate our published schedule.
We continue to offer the fullest support to our cabin crew who want to work as normal.
All of our flights at London City remain unaffected.
10.35am:
Martin, a BA employee, explains on his blog why he has chosen to cross the picket line :
I am "joe regular", a British Airways employee of over 15 years standing, playing my own individual part in trying to save as many of our customers travel plans as possible.
I am volunteering to be temporary cabin crew to support my colleagues who have made their own commitment to fly.
I have a young family, so undertaking the extensive training required is a major commitment on my part as it brings with it significant hours of study both at the training facility and at home – often studying late into the evening followed by very early starts.
10.27am:
BA said has reinstated eight cancelled long haul flights from Heathrow and 18 short haul services from Heathrow and Gatwick this weekend after maintaining that more staff than expected had turned up for work.
10.18am:
Unite claims that the disruption today will be worse than yesterday as cabin crew returning from flights abroad are due to join the strike.
But Heathrow\'s Terminal 5, where most BA flights flight depart from, seemed to be working normally today, according to PA.
It quotes Paul and Jenny Bennett from Kingswinford, West Midlands, who are going to Rio for their 40th wedding anniversary.
Jenny Bennett said:
"We are on a BA flight and we are going with no problems at the moment.
"We looked on the internet and it just said there may be a restricted cabin service and no duty free but we\'re not bothered as long as we get there safely.
"We were concerned about a week ago because this is a special trip we have saved up for. We like BA. We have flown with them before and I sympathise with the people who have gone on strike but I do feel, to be honest, that their union is 20 years out of date.
"You cannot do this sort of thing when businesses are struggling and you cannot have this sort of confrontation."
10.14am:
The Guardian\'s director of digital content, Emily Bell, is at Heathrow\'s Terminal 5 waiting to board a flight to New York. She emails:
There are no queues - quite a few flights, a very few of which are being
operated by other airlines. Terminal is quietish but not deserted by any means.
10.09am:
The chancellor Alistair Darling has repeated the government\'s opposition to the strike. Speaking on the BBC\'s Andrew Marr show, he said: "This dispute is unnecessary, it\'s damaging and it continues to inconvenience the travelling public. It is absolutely imperative that both sides get together and talk."
9.40am:
What do the Sunday papers make of the strike?
The Sunday Express is talking about a "spring of discontent" and has little sympathy for the union.
Those old enough to recall the Winter of discontent in 1979 look on current events with horror and disbelief. Have unions and management forgotten the lessons of 30 years ago?The dispute between BA and the Unite union is one that should never have started. Cabin crew have a grievance but it\'s no more than millions of people must deal with today. They are backed by a trade union that also happens to be paymaster to the Labour Party.
The Observer complains about both sides and the lack of sophistication in the dispute.
The two sides\' positions do not, on paper, look irreconcilable. But the personalities involved seem pathologically indisposed to reconciliation.
Even before the current dispute, BA chief executive Willie Walsh believed that trade union activism was a persistent drag on the company\'s performance. He is now convinced that facing down Unite, breaking a strike if necessary, is a vital step in the airline\'s evolution. Naturally, the union then accuses BA of failing to negotiate in good faith.
Across the table, Tony Woodley, one of Unite\'s two general secretaries, is a career trade union pugilist. He has rarely in his life credited a management team with the capacity to negotiate in good faith.
From the very start of the process, there was a lack of trust and a surplus of stubborn pride. The interests of BA customers and the wider economy were much deployed in the rhetoric of both sides, but not served in Mr Walsh\'s and Mr Woodley\'s brinkmanship.
The Mail on Sunday reports that the strike has "failed to take off" as BA\'s "strike-busting exercise" appears to be working .
While unions and management slug it out, they both seem to be forgetting that BA exists only because of considerable privileges which are a hangover from its days as a nationalised company.
Writing in the paper LibDem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable claims the dispute could be resolved by the government if it threatened to take away its historic privileges.
BA has preferential take-off and landing slots at Heathrow which it receives free of charge, much to the fury of competitors such as Virgin and BMI.
The expansion of runway capacity at Heathrow – bitterly opposed by large numbers of Londoners who live under the flight paths – is being undertaken at the behest of BA as well as the airport\'s owner BAA.
It is time to stop this pampering. If Gordon Brown and Lord Adonis seriously want to stop this strike they could make it crystal clear to both sides that these privileges will be taken away, leaving the airline and its jobs at the mercy of competitors. They would settle soon enough.
In the Sunday Times, the cartoonist Gerald Scarfe depicts Gordon Brown as a broken BA aircraft tumbling to earth
9.07am:
Unite claim that Heathrow\'s Terminal 5 is like a ghost town with 80% of cabin crew joining the strike .
BA\'s chief executive Willie Walsh says the company\'s strike contingency plans are working well and that some of the cancelled flights have been reinstated .
The government is reported to desperate to end the strike. Gordon Brown\'s officials are close touch with Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, according to the Observer.
The Conservatives continue to highlight the government\'s embarrassment over the dispute and its financial links with the union. It has launched a new poster claiming "Gordon\'s doing sweet BA" . It depicts the prime minister in a Unite cabin crew uniform.
A new ICM poll for the BBC shows that only 25% of people think the strike is justified.
Where do your sympathies lie in the dispute and has it affected your travel plans. Please let us know in the comments section below, or email me at matthew.weaver@guardian.co.uk .
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/mar/21/britishairways-tradeunions
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