23rd March 2010

BA strike continues as Unites relationship with the Labour party comes under scrutiny.

More than half of British Airways cabin crew defied the Union strike call and turned up for work as normal.

Virtually all the staff at Gatwick and over half of Heathrow cabin crew made it to work on Sunday allowing BA to fly around 60% of the programme. The war of words continued with Willie Walsh BA Chief Executive claiming the number of staff crossing picket lines was far more than expected by both sides.

Unite the union dispute these figures saying that most of the fleet was grounded at Heathrow and described Terminal 5 as a ghost town. Clearly, this was always going to be the case because passengers had simply booked with competitors in the absence of a guaranteed flight with BA.

The reason for the difference in figures is BA’s extensive plans to handle the walkout, which included leasing planes including crew and using a volunteer workforce made up by land surface staff who had been given extra training for weeks in readiness.

Industrial action has been called because of changes to operating practices with regard to cabin crew, which includes a decrease in the number of staff in each plane and fresh contracts for new employees on reduced pay. A further four-day stoppage is organised for next weekend and the union has asked for fresh talks to prevent further disruption.

The level of support for the strike appears to be waning and union must be aware that they need to make a deal sooner or later. Unite itself has also come in for some bad press due to the diversity and number of people they represent and in particular their relationship with the labour party who they have received substantial training grants from and in return made sizeable donations to the labour party.

In an election year, Gordon Brown cannot be too happy with this relationship coming under more and more scrutiny from the English press who are already having a field day this week when 3 former labour ministers have been caught by under cover reporters bragging about their ability to lobby in return for cash.