BA strike on after talks end in 'catastrophic' breakdown

Published on Monday 24 May 2010 00:04

A FIVE-DAY strike by thousands of British Airways cabin crew will go ahead today after what the Unite union called a "catastrophic" breakdown of talks.

• BA chief executive Willie Walsh

Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite, said last night there was no chance of resuming negotiations following talks with the airline.

Mr Woodley briefed union officials yesterday morning but was "gloomy" about the chances of resuming negotiations.

Unite is now pressing ahead with the first of three five-day walkouts.

Mr Woodley said there was an agreement in principle to end the bitter dispute, and that "good progress" had been made in talks at the conciliation service Acas on Saturday before they had to be abandoned amid scenes of chaos.

Scores of members of the Socialist Workers Party invaded the talks and surrounded Mr Woodley and BA's chief executive Willie Walsh, who hurriedly left the building via a rear exit.

Shortly afterwards, BA slated Unite's other joint leader, Derek Simpson, for giving a "running commentary" on the talks via the Twitter website.

Thousands of Unite members are to walk out for five days this week, followed by two further five-day strikes in the coming weeks.

Mr Woodley had made a last-minute plea to BA to make a concession on staff's withdrawn travel perks in order to halt the strike, saying:

"In a sign of good faith, I am making this offer – Willie, turn around and reinstate our people's travel without the unnecessary vindictive removal of their service and this union will call off tonight's strike and suspend the action to allow us to conclude the other issues that we were making good progress on yesterday before we were so rudely interrupted.

"Reinstate the travel now and those strikes scheduled tonight will be suspended to allow us to continue to conduct our business in a decent and proper way."

Mr Walsh insisted BA was prepared for the strike because of its contingency plans and its schedule drawn up last week.

He said last night: "British Airways will be flying tomorrow. We will not be grounded by the actions of a tiny minority who are clearly out of touch with reality."

He said the remaining issue at the heart of the dispute was the refusal of the Unite's British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (Bassa) to accept a deal agreed by Mr Woodley and Mr Simpson.

Staff travel perks were a "distraction" from that main issue, Mr Walsh insisted, saying a "framework" to restore them had been put in place as part of a series of concessions.

Asked about the possibility of a breakthrough , he said: "I believe there is always an opportunity. If it wasn't for Derek's actions and clearly then the mob storming the building, we may have been able to make significant progress."

BA announced record annual losses of 531 million last week due to lower passenger numbers, higher costs and the impact of the long-running dispute over jobs, pay and working conditions.

But Mr Walsh said: "BA will survive and will be stronger because we are tackling the core issues."

A BA spokesman said: "All flights at London Gatwick and London City will operate as normal. At Heathrow, we expect to operate more than 60 per cent of long-haul services and more than 50 per cent of short-haul flights, and we will add to that schedule where we can."

BA boss all of a twitter over union's tweets

BRITISH Airways boss Willie Walsh hit out at union leaders for posting updates on Saturday's talks on Twitter.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of the Unite union, posted several updates to the site from his mobile on Saturday, including, "Willie claims he is misquoted on websites" and "Arguments over the 8 sacked workers".

Walsh hit back over the Tweets, saying: "I was shocked and angry. When I found out that he was actually sending his version of events to the wider audience, you know that really did undermine my confidence in their desire to resolve this issue."

Simpson later Tweeted: "If I have to apologise to Willy then I shall... But I'm not afraid of saying what is really going on."

And last night he added: "There are a few unhappy with my tweeting, calling me several unrepeatable names."

Twitter

&#149 Talks still ongoing… Still hard going and progress hard won

&#149 Willie and Tony locking horns over accusations of unequal treatment and allegations of bullying

&#149 Willie claims he is misquoted on websites

&#149 Fear of more sackings