‘WE WANT the strike action reinstated immediately and extended, so that we can defeat Walsh’s union-busting operation once and for all,’ British Airways Stewards and Stewardesses Association (BASSA) member ‘Felicity’ told News Line yesterday.
Using a pseudonym to prevent victimisation, she said that all members of the BASSA branch of Unite would be wearing yellow at their mass branch meeting at Kempton Park racecourse next Monday morning.
‘We’re wearing yellow to signify that we won’t rest until our sacked and suspended colleagues are reinstated,’ she explained.
At least 13 cabin crew have been sacked since the start of the dispute at the beginning of the year and over 80 suspended.
‘We want a strike ballot called immediately to restore the action. It should have been called months ago,’ she added.
In an email to workers last week, BA executive in charge of cabin crew, Bill Francis, said: ‘I can assure you our focus has been, and remains, on trying to find a way to resolve this dispute so that we can all look forward to the future.’
In response, Unite joint general secretary, Tony Woodley, wrote to all the union’s 11,000 BA cabin crew members last Thursday, saying: ‘Dear Colleague,
‘My attention has been drawn to a recent email sent to you all by Bill Francis.
‘From my point of view, this email presents the state of play between the union and the company in a misleading and over-optimistic way. Our contact in the last few weeks has been relatively brief and infrequent.
‘The union has made what we regard as helpful proposals for both parties to go to conciliation on the outstanding issues, and has made substantive proposals regarding the return of full travel concessions within a time-limited period and the involvement of ACAS in disciplinary procedures.
‘On Tuesday this week, the company advised that all these proposals had been turned down.
‘It would therefore be wrong for you to infer from Bill’s email that any progress is being made, although I continue to hope that those within management who want an agreement will make their influence felt.
‘I would expect that there will be further meetings between the union and the company in a week or so.
‘However, the fact that this dispute is still dragging on without any real determination by management to resolve it means that the possibility of balloting you once more on industrial action, after discussion with your representatives, remains an option very much on the table.’
A BA offer was rejected by 2-1 in a consultative poll last month, but Unite has so far rebuffed calls for a ballot for further strike action and called for ‘peace’.
