British Airways is facing a prolonged strike by cabin crew next month after employees voted strongly in favour of a walkout. The poll saw 81% of cabin crew backing strike action against a proposed reduction of staff and a change to working conditions.
The Unite union did not announce any specific strike dates, but a walkout can be staged within 28 days.
Unite officials and members of its cabin crew will meet tomorrow to discuss possible dates, although the two week Easter holiday has been ruled out.
The assistant general secretary of Unite, urged BA to reach an agreement rather than end up in court adding that the situation would be better solved by negotiation and not itimidation.
McCluskey said BA’s 11,700 Unite-affiliated cabin crew would not walkout over Easter, to avoid disrupting families’ holiday plans. However, there is support within Bassa for a strike next month lasting at least 10 days.
A walkout by cabin crew is likely to bring most of BA’s operations to a halt ,however ,many auxiliary crew from the workforce are being trained up
Unite is braced for a combative response from BA’s lawyers. Today’s ballot is a re-run of the earlier poll, which w as staged after BA unilaterally reduced cabin crew on long-haul flights by at least one person to reduce costs at an airline that posted a pre-tax loss of £401m last year.
However, BA won an injunction against the previous vote after it emerged that cabin crew applying for voluntary redundancy had taken part. Unite is confident that its polling database can withstand another injunction attempt under the 1992 Trade Union Act, which requires unions to give detailed information about the poll and the employees taking part.