BA actions would ‘shame a Victorian mill owner’, says union

British Airways’ treatment of its workforce is worse than a ‘Victorian mill owner’, and will face industrial action unless it stops its ‘industrial thuggery’, trade union Unite has warned.

Amid rising tensions, Unite described BA claims that a settlement has been reached with staff as a deliberate attempt to mislead and cause division.

Far from a widespread agreement, union officials stressed that key parts of the workforce, including ground services staff and cabin crew are continuing to resist what it called the ‘hire and fire imposition which effectively sweeps away the pay, conditions and job security of tens of thousands of BA workers’.

While well-paid BA managers only face a temporary pay cut, 6000 staff have already been ‘forced to leave’ with the jobs of another 4000 under threat.

Unless BA halts its approach industrial action is inevitable, it said.

Unite warned the airline it was heading for a ‘winter of discontent’.

BA said it has been foced to make tough decsion is order to survive and insisted it was engaging in a ‘proper and lawful consultative process’. 

Unite Assistant General Secretary Howard Beckett said: "BA’s appalling behaviour puts that of a Victorian mill owner to shame. Make no mistake however, this fight is far from over. In fact it’s only just beginning. 

"Despite BA’s deliberate efforts to mislead and divide, there can be no peace while this wealthy business is determined to make the lowest paid pay the highest price in an opportunistic re-structuring while the better-off get to keep their pay and conditions. 

"Overnight, Willie Walsh and his managers are turning British Airways into a mass user of what are effectively wholly flexible contracts which will be completely open to abuse.  This an employment scandal, and a very dark day for this country, where BA still pretends to lays claim to national carrier status.

"Unite is utterly determined that BA will not get away with this thuggery, and we will fight this grotesque abuse of decent working people with every tool at our disposal.  If that means months of going through the courts and taking strike action to protect workers, so be it.  BA has left these workers and its union no other choice.

"In standing up to this bully, they will have receive the total support of their union, Unite."   

The union said it is also considering supporting potentially thousands of workers in employment tribunals where staff have been ‘misled on the monetary value of voluntary redundancy’.

BA said it has had no option but to ‘adapt to survive’.

"For more than 100 years British Airways has been flying millions of people around the world. Today that world remains largely closed," a spokesperson for the airline said.

"Sadly, the global pandemic has resulted in job losses across every industry. This is the biggest challenge we have ever faced. Many airlines have already made thousands of staff redundant.

"We are not immune to this crisis. We have to adapt to survive, so we will continue with the proper, lawful consultative process and we will keep inviting union representatives to discuss our proposals to the serious challenges we face.

"It is not too late to find solutions – as we have done with BALPA – and to protect jobs.:

By Steve Jones, Contributing Editor