BRITISH AIRWAYS cabin crew are to hold 20 days of strike action in a dispute over pay and working conditions which threaten weeks of misery for travellers, Unite union said yesterday.
BA said it aimed to operate a substantial part of its scheduled long-haul services and flights from two London airports would be unaffected.
The action, to be staged over a four-week period, will be the third wave of strikes by BA staff this year. Walkouts in March caused chaos for passengers over the busy Easter holiday and cost the company millions of pounds.
Unite said the first strikes would begin on May 18th and run until May 22nd. There will be further walkouts on May 24th-28th, May 30th-June 3rd and June 5th-9th.
“Passengers and investors alike will be dismayed that British Airways management rejected an approach by the union over the weekend after their offer had been comprehensively turned down by their own employees,” Unite’s joint general secretaries Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley said.
“Cabin crew are left with no choice but to take further strike action,” they said, adding that the seven days until the first strike gave BA bosses sufficient time to reopen negotiations.
BA said: “We are confident that many crew will again ignore Unite’s pointless strike call and support the efforts of the rest of the airline to keep our customers flying.”
It said flights from Gatwick and London City airports would be unaffected and it aimed to operate much of its long-haul services from Heathrow. – (Reuters)
