ON SATURDAY more than 1,000 British Airways pilots marched on BA’s Heathrow headquarters over plans by BA to use non-BA pilots, in its new Open Skies subsidiary, on cut rate pay and conditions of service.
BA is emulating Aer Lingus which recently moved from Shannon to Belfast airport, and announced that its air crews and all other staff at the new terminal would be on lower rates of pay and different conditions of service than had been on offer at Shannon airport.
BA’s ‘OpenSkies’ service is due to fly from non-UK European capitals to the USA, following an EU-US agreement.
BA Pilots are determined not to allow a two-tier system of terms and conditions at BA, since the employer, whatever he is saying now, will inevitably use it to drive the wages, conditions and pensions of all BA pilots down.
They feel so strongly about the issue that 86 per cent voted for strike action in a recent ballot.
The company has meanwhile threatened to take the Unite trade union to the courts to get an order that any strike will be illegal, since Article 43 of the Treaty of Rome allows companies in the EU freedom to establish business anywhere.
British Airways says the new airline would not be viable if all its pilots were employed under existing terms.
Referring to the members who turned out for the protest, Captain Dave Smith of the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) said: ‘This shows that we are determined that our jobs and our security and our family lives will be defended.’
Balpa General Secretary Jim McAuslan said: ‘This march and rally comes a week after a BA threat to serve an injunction on our association. Our message is clear – we will not be bullied, we will not be brushed off, we will persevere.’
Nevertheless, Balpa decided not to take strike action over Easter and is hoping that there can be a settlement outside of the courts, where a court ruling in favour of Article 43 would have ramifications all over the world.
However, there is no room for manoeuvre for either of the two sides.
Oil prices are rising rapidly, the banks are collapsing, and all of the airlines and the contractors who serve them on the ground are seeking to cut wages, jobs, and conditions. They say that only the fittest will be able to survive the developing economic storm.
The airport’s owner BAA has increased its charges in a move that is expected to make the airline companies determined to cut costs by cutting wages and charging more for tickets and services.
British Airways has already issued a severe profit warning, citing the economic crisis and a soaring oil price as pressures that cannot be ignored.
BA says profit margins will be 7 per cent in 2009, down from an expected 10 per cent in 2008. It also warned that fuel costs would rise by £450m to £2.5bn in 2009, as the price of oil climbs to well above $105 a barrel.
BA added that non-fuel costs will rise by between 3 per cent and 3.5 per cent, with total expenditure excluding fuel climbing by £200m, including a £35m hit from the move to Terminal 5 and increased costs caused by expanding the fleet.
BA’s rival Ryan Air says a tight EU economy and oil costs could hit profits by up to £180.5m in the next financial year.
The International Air Transport Association has also warned that the air industry is heading towards its biggest downturn since the September 11 attacks.
A class conflict between pilots and other workers defending their jobs, and the employers is therefore inevitable, all over the air transport industry.
Balpa and the other trade unions will have to face up to this situation and decide that they will defend their members’ interests by all means necessary. This does mean indefinite strike action.
It does mean having a programme for the nationalisation of the air transport industry as the only way of dealing with the capitalist crisis.
This does mean bringing down the Brown government and bringing in a workers’ government that will expropriate the bosses and the bankers to put an end to the capitalist crisis.