UK air forwarders are facing possible disruptions after the union representing British Airways (BA) cabin crew called a further 20 days of strikes.
A BA spokesman told IFW today the airline was “still available for talks”, but declined to say whether it was prepared to make any further concessions or whether actual talks had been scheduled.
“We believe the offer we made to the union last week is a very fair one, and that is still on the table,” he said. “If you look at why the union said that should be rejected, it was nothing to do with the offer itself – it was to do with the reinstatement of staff travel and some disciplinary cases.”
Unite issued a statement yesterday saying that BA management had failed to offer any new proposals over the weekend to settle the dispute, after the rejection of its latest offer.
As a result, cabin crew are due to strike on: 18-22 May; 24-28 May; 30 May-3 June and 5-9 June. This follows strikes in March that reduced BA’s passenger services by around 50%, although BA World Cargo said it managed to maintain 90% of its cargo capacity during the first strike through contingency plans.
A spokesperson from BA World Cargo (BAWC) today said: “Following Unite’s decision to pursue industrial action, BAWC wants to reassure customers that we have continued to build on our contingency planning following the previous industrial action in March and as a result we expect to run a significant part of our operations normally.
"This will include operating a full long-haul freighter service, with passenger flights and belly hold from Gatwick remaining unaffected.
"With regards to the rest of our operations, we plan to operate substantial parts of both the long-haul and short-haul scheduled networks and our trucking operations will also continue to operate normally.” Asked whether he was optimistic about averting the strikes, BA told IFW: “We are certainly hopeful. We don’t believe there is any justification for the strikes.”
The head of one major UK air freight customer told IFW there were “quite a few alternatives” to BA to most destinations. “We don’t use BA much, and we managed to avoid major disruptions during the last strike,” she added.
Unite’s joint general secretaries Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley said: “The seven days’ notice period is sufficient time for BA management to do the sensible thing and reopen meaningful negotiations.” BA said it was “saddened but not surprised” that Unite had announced further plans for extensive disruption.
“We are confident that many crew will again ignore Unite’s pointless strike call and support the efforts of the airline to keep our customers flying. “Due to the excellent levels of support we have received from cabin crew, all flights to and from Gatwick will continue to operate as normal. Flights at London City will also be unaffected.
“At Heathrow, we plan to operate a substantial part of our long-haul schedule and there will be a number of daily flights to every destination across our short-haul network.”
BA said that four or five days before the strike, it would announce the exact details of its revised Heathrow schedule.
Unite intends to hold a further ballot of BA cabin crew over "issues arising over the company’s conduct during the dispute".
Source: Will Waters, IFW News, 11 May 2010