| British Airways Crew Plans Seven Days Strike This Month |
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12/03/2010 15:51 (701 Day 17:06 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- British Airways cabin crew will strike for seven days this month, beginning with a three-day walkout on 20 March and another four days from March 27.
The first strikes by BA cabin crew in nearly 13 years have been called by the Unite trade union after a breakdown in talks over staffing cuts, Guardian reports. The industrial action by 12,000 flight attendants has been timed to bring maximum disruption to BA, with the airline facing a struggle to reinstate a normal timetable between strikes.
BA carries around 75,000 passengers a day and the strikes will affect hundreds of thousands of passengers, according to the same source. The airline has pledged to run a significant skeleton service with the help of 1,000 volunteer cabin crew.
BA has drawn up contingency plans to deal with the strikes, with up to 1,000 volunteer staff ready to work as cabin crew, including hundreds of pilots, Press Association reports. The airline has also said it will hire 23 fully-crewed planes from charter companies to help run flights from Heathrow.
Flights from London's City Airport , including long-haul services to New York, would operate normally in the event of a strike, while 70% of cabin crew would work at Gatwick, meaning all long-haul and 50% of short-haul flights would be unaffected, BA has said, according to the same source. No specific details were given about flights from Heathrow in the event of industrial action, but chief executive Willie Walsh said a "substantial" number of long and short-haul services would still operate.
Workers are unhappy about changes that include a pay freeze in 2010, a switch to part-time work for 3,000 staff and a reduction in cabin crew sizes on long-haul flights, AP ereports. BA argues the changes are necessary to ride out a downturn in passenger demand because of the global financial crisis.
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