BA unions threaten to ballot for industrial action

Unions threatened British Airways (BA) with a summer of strikes, disruption and delays as criticism mounted yesterday over the airline's imposition of changes to working procedures for its staff at London-Heathrow airport.

A second day of talks between managers and union representatives continued into the evening in an attempt to avert a repetition of the weekend's unofficial walkout by check-in employees.

One union source said: "Not much progress is being made."

BA's chief executive, Mr Rod Eddington, cancelled a family holiday in Korea to deal with the crisis and ground staff struggled to clear a backlog of 700 passengers still waiting for flights in one of Heathrow's busiest weeks of the year. Employees are angry at BA's plans to introduce swipe cards at midday today, forcing them to "clock on" as they arrive for work. They believe this could lead to contracts requiring a certain number of hours' work a month, at times of the management's choosing.

Three British unions - the T&G, Amicus and the GMB - have threatened to ballot for a summer of industrial action if the cards are introduced.

There are fears that staff could stage a second wildcat walkout even before a vote takes place.

Some employees say the problem runs deeper, claiming Mr Eddington's programme of 13,000 redundancies since September 11th has left the remaining workforce stretched and overworked.

"The discontent goes right through the firm," a BA source at Heathrow said. "What is increasingly apparent is that we haven't got the staff to run the airline at its existing size."

The insider said more unofficial walkouts by check-in attendants were a possibility: "The mood they're in is that they don't trust anybody." Unions have accused BA of imposing the swipe cards in the middle of a period of negotiation over a proposal to link the change to a 3 per cent pay rise. But BA's director for Heathrow, Mr Mervyn Walker, insisted the airline had consulted thoroughly: "We have been talking about this issue for almost a year.

"All we want to do is replace a manual system with an automated system. It does not affect any aspect of their work."

Analysts in the City, London's financial centre, said the weekend's stoppage is likely to have cost BA revenue of £22 million (€31 million) a day - and a great deal of passenger goodwill.

Meanwhile, the airline said last night that of the 700 passengers delayed at the start of the day, just 20 were being put up in hotels.

Most of the 700 had been rebooked on to BA flights or given seats on other airlines following the earlier chaos outside. - Guardian Service