THERE can be only one response by BA cabin crew to the latest attempt by the national leadership of Unite to impose a ‘settlement’ and end their two-year fight against job losses and wage and pensions cutting, and that is to reject emphatically a deal that gives BA almost everything it wants.
Introducing this rotten sell-out, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey called it an ‘honourable settlement’ and a ‘victory for common sense’ – it is neither!
Under this settlement the union is accepting the existence of a two-tier workforce.
New entrants are being employed on lower pay and pensions and worse conditions than existing staff – a cost-cutting condition that was at the heart of the dispute when it started in 2009, when BA and its then Chief Executive Willie Walsh first proposed to slash the number of crew on flights and impose a two-year pay freeze.
On pay, the two-year freeze has already been carried out. BA are now proposing a two-year pay deal, only backdated to last February.
This involves a 2.9% pay increase this year followed by an increase of up to 3% next, well below the projected 5% inflation rate for next year.
No wonder a BA spokesman crowed that ‘the original cost savings we were looking for have already been achieved, it was a matter of the union understanding that they are permanent.’
In the course of the dispute, cabin crew – who are members of the BASSA section of Unite – have faced a barrage of intimidation both from the company and from the law courts.
Numerous overwhelming ballots in favour of strike action have been overturned by the courts and declared illegal while members of the BASSA branch have been sacked and victimised in a campaign designed to intimidate them into submission.
Alongside this intimidation, Walsh organised a campaign to recruit scabs to replace striking crew in an open attempt to break the union at Heathrow.
The leadership of Unite, first under Tony Woodley and now under McCluskey, have sought at every step to undermine any action, caving in to the courts and calling off strikes at short notice, and agreeing with Walsh that the biggest stumbling block to giving BA what they wanted was the intransigence of the BASSA branch and its members.
Bending over backwards to accommodate BA means that Unite and McCluskey have agreed to management’s insistence that the BASSA branch must be wound up. It is to be merged with a branch of Amicus.
With McCluskey’s blessing, BA now have the right to dictate union organisation – an unprecedented concession by the Unite leadership that betrays the independence of the union.
As for the cabin crew, who have been sacked during the dispute for supporting their union, this agreement simply allows for their appeals against dismissal to go to the independent arbitration service (ACAS) for binding decisions, a complete retreat from the ‘no victimisation’ demand, and one that lays these members open to being sacked with the agreement of the Unite trade union.
BA has been forced to make one compromise, notably, on the reinstatement of travel concessions for cabin crew.
This only serves to underline the fact that if the full strength of Unite had been mobilised on the airport against the union-busting attacks by BA this dispute could have been won within days.
It was the refusal of the Unite leaders to lead such a struggle that has resulted in this sell-out.
The urgent task now for cabin crew is to reject this agreement and to demand that McCluskey calls out all Unite members at the airport in defence of jobs, conditions and their union.
If he refuses to do so he must go, and be replaced with a new leadership prepared to lead this fight.
