DESPITE the pouring rain, cabin crew maintained three lively pickets at Heathrow Airport yesterday, in the final week of their current course of strike action.
At Hatton Cross, ‘Patrick’ said: ‘The whole airport should come out to win the cabin crew strike.
‘It is about time the mismanagement of the airline is exposed.
‘They may have made £500 million in losses, but they also paid £500 million in price-fixing fines.’
‘Carol’ said: ‘We are not going to let Willie Walsh ruin the future of trade unions in Britain.
‘In a company the size of British Airways unions are an absolute necessity to protect workers and their terms and conditions.
‘We should make sure any sacrifices made are made at every level, including management.
‘Time and time again it is those that can least afford to make the sacrifices that are being made to sacrifice.’
‘Jack’, a Unite (BASSA) shop steward, said: ‘The mandate for the current course of action ends on June 10 and then the branch committee and Unite will then decide to reballot.
‘Then you have to go through the legal process again.
‘As far as I know, the reballot will take place. We’ll wait for the result and go on from there.
‘The support is there: the cabin crew are solid.
‘The support from the public is very good.
‘There are no negotiations planned.’
‘Daniel’ said: ‘We are generally not a militant workforce but we have been pushed to the edge. We have to fight for what we believe in.’
A young cabin crew worker from Hong Kong said: ‘I am Hong Kong-based cabin crew and I support my colleagues.
‘We in Hong Kong support British Airways cabin crew.
‘BA have 10 overseas bases and they hire local crew to work alongside the Heathrow crew.
‘We are colleagues and we rely on the British unions to support us.’