Business | Aviation
Cabin crew call in offering to work during BA strike
International support for stoppage spreads
- Financial Times
- Published: 00:00 March 19, 2010
London :Thousands more British Airways passengers will be able to fly during a three-day strike due to start tomorrow as growing numbers of cabin crew call in offering to work, the airline said.
International support for the Unite union organising the strike, meanwhile, spread to Europe. The European Transport Workers' Federation said, like the Teamsters union in the US, it was backing BA workers in what would be the first stoppage at the carrier in nearly 13 years. However, the federation told the Financial Times it was unable to say what form such support might take.
Amid the mounting tensions, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told parliament he had spoken to both BA managers and Unite and believed that there was still time to avert the strike, which is poised to take place before an anticipated May 6 general election.
Position hardened
But far from showing signs of caving in, each side appeared to harden its position in the dispute over BA's decision last year to cut at least one flight attendant position from most long-haul flights.
Unite wrote to Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, urging him to investigate how thoroughly BA had vetted the 1,000 volunteers it was "rushing through" to replace strikers in any walkout. BA insisted that all the new workers had passed appropriate security checks and obtained required work visas but Unite said it had "grave concerns" about the replacement staff.
Willie Walsh, BA chief executive, hit back with a statement insisting that many more cabin crew were offering to work through a strike because of their "disillusion" with Unite. He said the airline would be able to raise the number of passengers flown during the stoppage from 60 per cent to 65 per cent. "We will now have the potential to fly more than 4,000 additional customers per day and serve more destinations," he said.
The airline has not said what it might do during a second four-day walkout due to start on March 27.
The weekly House of Commons clash between Britain's leaders was dominated by stormy exchanges over the looming strike, with David Cameron accusing Brown of weakness in the face of the industrial action. "It's back to the 1970s, we have got hand-wringing from a weak prime minister," the Conservative party leader said during prime minister's questions.
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