‘I WANT an immediate ballot and indefinite strike action now. Let’s see them cope with that! I don’t want to wait until Christmas’, a British Airways cabin crew member told News Line last Friday.
She was speaking ahead of today’s 11am meeting of the 12,000-strong British Airways Stewards and Stewardess Association (BASSA) Unite branch, taking place at Kempton Park, near Heathrow Airport.
BA has rejected a ‘compromise offer’ over the removal of travel concessions and a strike ballot is ‘inevitable’ if BA continues to delay reaching a settlement, a Unite spokesman said last week.
‘The continuing rise in the number of unjustified suspensions and dismissals is seriously complicating any attempt to bring this dispute to an end,’ he added.
Two weeks ago, Unite General Secretary Tony Woodley wrote to all cabin crew saying that ‘the possibility of balloting you once more on industrial action, after discussion with your representatives, remains an option very much on the table’.
BASSA warned members last week that cabin crew union reps are being systematically targeted for suspension and dismissal and that: ‘British Airways current leadership is determined to wipe your union and its membership out’.
The tally of cabin crew sacked or suspended since the start of the dispute last November stands at 14 sacked and 63 suspended and BASSA branch members are wearing an item of yellow clothing at today’s meeting as a symbol of solidarity with them.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid victimisation, a cabin crew member told News Line over the weekend that Walsh’s union-busting plans are proceeding apace.
She said: ‘At the moment the Cranebank in-house training centre is swarming with new recruits, who are already flying on vastly reduced wages.
‘Their uniform is visibly different from ours. They hope to recruit 2,000 a year. You do the maths. Just how long would it take them to replace us.
‘They are trying to make us battle-weary. The most loyal cabin crew feel so devalued, many are having nervous breakdowns.
‘It’s quite an isolating business being a cabin crew. When you’re away from home and worrying about your house security and job security.
‘They want us out. I think the two-tier workforce that they are planning to bring in amounts to segregation.
‘Walsh wants a union-free British Airways. They see this as the final way of getting rid of the “bastards”.
‘We heard that a manager was speaking to a retired manager who asked him what was going on and he replied, “This is our final chance to get rid of the bastards.”
‘We don’t know if he was referring to the union or the crew, but it’s the same thing.
‘The rumour is that Walsh has got strikebreaking bases in LA and Florida, where he’s recruiting hundreds of ground crew and training them up as cabin crew to break the strike.
‘One senior pilot on Bangalore boasted to a cabin crew girl that he was paid £2,000 on a night stop to work as a cabin crew and break our strike.
‘The audacity to call them “volunteers”! Volunteers are people who do things for nothing. These people are doing it for money and their CVs.
‘I think the union has been seething since the decision by Justice Cox to outlaw our strike last Christmas. That decision prolonged and bloodied this war.
‘I think people at the meeting on Monday are going to be absolutely livid. What people have been through this summer, money-wise, hardship wise!
‘After the strikes, management minused my paycheque to the maximum amount. I’ve been really on the breadline this summer.
‘What’s going on is defamation of the union and annihilation of the union reps. There’s an absolute atmosphere of fear. People are scared to talk to the wrong person.
‘You’ve got to be seriously careful who you talk to. It’s not a great place to work anymore.
‘It’s so clear to me as a cabin crew member that if I say anything against the “scabbing crew” to the wrong person, I would end up suspended. It’s like living under the SS in Germany in 1938. It’s a climate of fear.
‘This is life and death for a large number of people. At Monday’s meeting we want no bullshit. We’ve lost our concessions and we want them back. Our colleagues have been suspended and sacked and we want them back too.’
