NO TALKS are planned between British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh and cabin crew, who began a four-day strike at midnight. However, the airline insisted that all of the 240,000 people booked with the airline over the period will be able to fly with it, or with other airlines.
The second round of industrial action by cabin crew, who are members of the Unite trade union, has become bitter, with Mr Walsh insisting he will “never” give back travel perks to staff who took part in the first three-day strike.
The chief executive rejected charges made by leading industrial relations experts that he is trying to break the union.
“They can rest easy. We have no intention of breaking Unite. On the contrary, our last offer explicitly stated our readiness to recognise Unite not only to represent existing crew for bargaining purposes in future but also to represent new crew.”
British Airways said it expects to fly more than 180,000 of the 240,000 people who had planned to travel from March 27th to March 30th, while a further 18 per cent have either rebooked with other carriers, or changed their travel dates to avoid the strike.
BA’s operations from Gatwick and London City airports will operate normally, while 55 per cent of short-haul and 70 per cent of long-haul flights from Heathrow will take off.
Mr Walsh said: “The vast majority of BA staff, including thousands of cabin crew, are pulling together to serve our customers and keep our flag flying.
“At the same time, I feel really sorry for those customers whose plans have been ruined by the Unite union’s completely unjustified action.
“Despite the union’s promises, this strike has affected the Easter holiday plans of thousands of hard-working people.”
Meanwhile, Unite has rejected Mr Walsh’s declaration that the company’s losses from the strike will be kept to £7 million (€7.8 million) a day, and insist that the bill for the seven days of industrial action will be £100 million (€112 million).
