Stop worrying – the planned British Airways strike will not take place next week.
The airline has reached an agreement with the Unite trade union, with almost 2,000 members of the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association backing the deal. The final vote, which will be cast by 9,000 cabin crew members, is expected to be a mere “formality”.
The agreement ends an 18-month disagreement between the airline and its cabin crew, which led to every traveller’s nightmare – 22 days of strikes and the cancellation of hundreds of flights. Initially, the dispute was kicked off by the airline’s demand for changes to be made to working practices, with staff cuts and voluntary redundancies. The airline’s new leader, Keith Williams, who has taken over from Willie Walsh as BA’s top dog, is said to have played a major role in brokering the successful deal.
The best news of all, of course, is that the new series of strikes – planned for next week – have now been called off.
A BA spokesperson said, “On behalf of our customers, we are very pleased the threat of industrial action has been lifted and that we have reached a point where we can put this dispute behind us.
“Our agreement with Unite involves acknowledgement by the union that the cost-saving structural changes we have made in cabin crew operations are permanent.
“We have also agreed changes that will modernise our crew industrial relations and help ensure that this kind of dispute cannot occur again,” added the spokesperson.
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