Len McCluskey blows his cool and announces plans for British Airways cabin crew strikes

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• Ian P says:

  28 Jul28 July 11:31

  “There IS a process for voluntary redundancy (**staff must submit reasons by today for why they should be retained**, voluntary redundancy and part-time working applications must be submitted by 3rd August, the result of the selection process for choosing those who remain is 7th August)”

  [Emphasis added]

  Staff are being made to reapply to be retained on a new contract. Those who fail to be selected will be made involuntarily redundant. (i.e. sacked)

  How is that not firing and rehiring? In my view it’s a distinction without a difference.

  • Rob says:

    28 Jul28 July 11:58

    It won’t happen because BA can’t take the risk that too few people agree to sign the new contracts. What does it do then?

  • C77 says:

    28 Jul28 July 12:19

    Why do they NEED to fill in a form telling BA why they should be kept on? A look at the employee HR file should be enough to determine who stays if there’s a bar to pass. Or is this going to pan out into some sort judges houses of who’s got the best sob story?

    • 351 says:

      28 Jul28 July 12:32

      It’s optional. But advisable if you really want to make sure everything good is indeed cross-checked and not missed. For example sometimes Golden Tickets slip through the net (especially physical ones) and they can be highlighted etc. It’s not mandatory though but anybody sensible would send it anyway just to extra sure

      • C77 says:

        28 Jul28 July 17:23

        With respect I believe the decision will have already been made. Skills form or no skills form. It’s all in the execution of delivery now. Making sure everything is legal, that Unite have had sufficient opportunity to enter into dialogue. The plaster just needs ripping now once and for all. For everyone’s sanity.

    • Lady London says:

      28 Jul28 July 12:34

      BA has already made their lists of who’s going and who can stay, in great detail.

      Letters and inputs will be managed on the basis of exception management only – whether there’s anything in them to change the draft decision on that employee.

• John T says:

  28 Jul28 July 11:50

  “It is your staff, not you, that have for many years, built the good name of British Airways and contributed billions of pounds to its profitability year on year.”

  Yes, the CEO has no impact on the profitability of a company.

  So furloughed cabin crew are going to go on strike? How exactly will that work?

  • Doug M says:

    28 Jul28 July 12:57

    CEO’s have an impact on a company’s profitability for sure. Not always the one they imagine though.

• BS says:

  28 Jul28 July 11:54

  I am surprised by the lack of professionalism in this letter. Even if you feel it (and lets be honest there have been times we all have wanted to write a letter with language like this), actually writing it does not do your position any favours, and I am amazed a man in his position does not know this.

  • Lady London says:

    28 Jul28 July 12:37

    And if you’re going to write such a letter, frankly you could do it a lot better than this example.

    If this is the kind of representation BA cabin crew are getting in return for their union dues then I feel sorry for them.

• Sussex Bantam says:

  28 Jul28 July 11:57

  That reads like one of those emails I draft at 11pm and then delete the following morning (hopefully unsent)

  • Matthew says:

    28 Jul28 July 13:32

    I agree, smell the coffee and delete. These union barons, on their fat member funded salaries, are not in the real world. I am not an apologist for BA and the way they treat their staff, however it is now survival. It is so far apparent the UK government wont be giving them bucketfuls of cash, like EU governments ( so much for a competative level playing field in Brexit talks).

    I am likely to have to close my business and lay off all staff due to Covid. It is not real of the union to now go and threaten strike action. Turkeys asking for an early Christmas.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      28 Jul28 July 14:02

      Thought they haven’t and won’t ask for any government cash?

      They’d rather reduce their long term salary costs than worry about staff morale.

      • Paul74 says:

        28 Jul28 July 14:30

        Indeed.

• James says:

  28 Jul28 July 12:10

  It does read like a late night panic email. Too many BA staff have had it too good for too long just because of the absurd amount of power the union has. For once, BA actually doesn’t need them and they should seize the opportunity to bring them back to reality.

  • sigma421 says:

    28 Jul28 July 12:30

    While I don’t think the email is a great piece of writing I do think it’s a bit of a myth that BA staff have been living it up at the expense of the airline. IAG has been one of the most profitable airline groups on Earth for several years. Despite this, its pay offers to staff have been consistently miserly and salary and conditions for new hires more or less across the board are generally pretty poor. This has happened to a lesser extent with pilots for the basic reason that they can’t be easily replaced and there was (until now) much greater demand for pilots worldwide, giving them more bargaining power. This may partly explain the better outcome there.

    The major side effect of this is that it destroyed trust between staff and BA and it’s a bit rich for BA to act as though this is a shocking outcome. I don’t think Len slipping into 80s Union baron mode is particularly constructive but I can see why we’ve ended up here. IAG does seem to be a fairly ghastly employer.

    • 351 says:

      28 Jul28 July 12:36

      I can’t speak for other roles but cabin crew pay especially on the new proposal is actually much better than a lot competing airlines across UK and Europe (excluding legacy WW/EF contracts). It’s also higher pay than other professions such as junior nurses, HCAs, junior teachers/teaching assistants, many grad schemes’ starting salary. Not saying that justifies BA’s rates but if that’s what the market rate is, then broader political and socioeconomic reasons need to be blamed than BA alone.

    • Opus says:

      28 Jul28 July 12:39

      I understand your point and I cannot say IAG is not a fault, they are. But my thing is. Why is unite ignoring the mixed fleet crew? Their pay is going up. The legacy crew they said their pay is only going down by 20% (cash payment at least). I don’t know what the terms are now but I assume it’s now mixed fleet terms. The pilots are also receiving pay cuts. Why is it only legacy that cannot receive a pay cut.

      • 351 says:

        28 Jul28 July 12:42

        Because essentially the Mixed Fleet Unite branch are just the sacrificial lambs with 0 influence/power within Unite itself. The show is run by BASSA and Len. We don’t see many news articles or interviews with non-WW/EF staff do we?

    • Paul74 says:

      28 Jul28 July 14:31

      Agreed.

• Opus says:

  28 Jul28 July 12:19

  This is a horrible email. Who sends this kind of email? Why is it that BA has been able to strike a deal with the pilots but nothing for the crew. It seems very obvious now what that reason is.

  • Andrew says:

    28 Jul28 July 12:33

    Someone who has forgotten that they are representing their paying members?

    As a Unite member (not airline), I’m embarrassed by the poor quality content from our alleged leader.

  • Josh says:

    28 Jul28 July 15:30

    I doubt he even write it. He will have got his PR agency to write it and then he will have approved it.

• the_real_a says:

  28 Jul28 July 12:35

  Well- writing an email will show ’em. Maybe no-one will notice the annual strike this year?

• Jerrry Butler says:

  28 Jul28 July 12:58

  Interesting correspondence. Red Len does rightly point out that its not Alex Cruz running the show, the real power lies with little Willie.

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