BA IN CRUNCH STRIKE TALKS WITH UNIONS
BRITISH Airways is believed to be talking to union officials today to avert possible strikes that would bring more air misery.
Airline chiefs are understood to be meeting the Unite union over a pay row involving about 500 check-in staff at Heathrow and issues raised by other BA workers.
Last month a Unite ballot of its 16,000 BA staff received 97% backing for potential industrial action.
A source said: “It will be a pretty important meeting. If they want to buy themselves some time they can do something on pay but there are a lot of other issues to resolve.”
Those issues cover everything from rosters to meal allowances.
Morale is said to have not recovered from BA’s fire-and-rehire tactics early in the pandemic.
The GMB union, representing nearly 300 BA Heathrow check-in staff, is to confirm strike dates in the coming days.
Unite and GMB may stage walkouts on the same days to maximise disruption for BA. The airline, which already has staff shortages, is likely to struggle to fill the gaps, leading to more chaos for holidaymakers.
Last night a BA spokeswoman said she was unaware of the Unite talks.
Previously it has said it is committed to solving worker grievances.
Yesterday BA confirmed it had scrapped 650 flights for this month, for up to 105,000 customers, from Heathrow and Gatwick. This is on top of the 16,000-plus services it already scrapped for April to October.
BA said: “As the industry continues to face the most challenging period in its history, it has become necessary to make further reductions.
“We’re in touch with customers to apologise and offer to rebook them or issue a full refund.”