BA strike...place your bets now.

[elster]

So they are due to vote again on if they should strike.

Will they see common sense and not bother after seeing the public hatred to them with the plans to strike when they seem to be one of the best paid staff in the industry.

Or will they try to put the final nail in the coffin of BA?

[FourWheelDrift]

I wonder how much support a political party would get if they stated they could and would legally declare Unions illegal. Apart from a few staunch socialists and time wasters who will moan, there wouldn't be any difference to the workers conditions. Except they would no longer be able to use blackmail tactics to get their way.

They were only ever set up (Tolpuddle) to prevent employers from reducing workers salaries, now they are used to militantly keep annual pay rises on the go, higher than inflation and national average increases and other similar things. With workers rights now ingrained into the legal protection system is there any reason for Unions?

[cazzer]

Workers rights enshrined into law my arse.

I have a mate who is a welder.
Bloody good welder. But the work he does tends to come and go.
Last 4 jobs he's had hes been laid off after 11.5 months.
See a bit of a pattern there?

[AndrewW-G]

My guess is that once they strike, BA will despite winky pledging everything including his one good eye to save it, go into receivership..................ultimately ending up with mass layoffs for the highly experienced tea ladies and waiters, whilst all the resulting unemployed staff will be costing the country money whilst they find other jobs, the union leaders responsible for inciting the strikes, will at worst have a small pay cut!

Unions don’t you just love em

[FourWheelDrift]

cazzer said:

Workers rights enshrined into law my arse.

I didn't say "into law" I said legal protection, if they feel they have been sacked unreasonably they can get and use legal advice, the kind that was never around when the Tolpuddle Martyrs first complained.

[DSM2]

cazzer said:

Workers rights enshrined into law my arse.

I have a mate who is a welder.
Bloody good welder. But the work he does tends to come and go.
Last 4 jobs he's had hes been laid off after 11.5 months.
See a bit of a pattern there?

Interesting.

I have a mate who's in welding, hasn't been out of work in my memory. The people who he works for seem to need him more than he needs them.

[cazzer]

DSM2 said:

cazzer said:

Workers rights enshrined into law my arse.

I have a mate who is a welder.
Bloody good welder. But the work he does tends to come and go.
Last 4 jobs he's had hes been laid off after 11.5 months.
See a bit of a pattern there?

Interesting.

I have a mate who's in welding, hasn't been out of work in my memory. The people who he works for seem to need him more than he needs them.

I think it may be the location.
There seems to be more welders around here than anything else.

[rs1952]

According to R2 news this afternoon, the unions have gone further than they did last time by announcing that any strike would be over Easter.

AFAIK, last time the union dropped that 12 day Christmas strike bombshell on their members after they got the yes" vote.

My money would be on a lot closer result this time, because I doubt whether BA staff would have voted for a 12 day strike over Christmas (with no doubt lots of incentive rates applying) had they known in advance what they were actually voting for. 12 days pay is a lot of money to anybody.

[Zod]

cazzer said:

DSM2 said:

cazzer said:

Workers rights enshrined into law my arse.

I have a mate who is a welder.
Bloody good welder. But the work he does tends to come and go.
Last 4 jobs he's had hes been laid off after 11.5 months.
See a bit of a pattern there?

Interesting.

I have a mate who's in welding, hasn't been out of work in my memory. The people who he works for seem to need him more than he needs them.

I think it may be the location.
There seems to be more welders around here than anything else.

Perhaps he could move then rather than hope for people to employ him and pay him when they have no work for him.

[DSM2]

rs1952 said:

According to R2 news this afternoon, the unions have gone further than they did last time by announcing that any strike would be over Easter.

AFAIK, last time the union dropped that 12 day Christmas strike bombshell on their members after they got the yes" vote.

My money would be on a lot closer result this time, because I doubt whether BA staff would have voted for a 12 day strike over Christmas (with no doubt lots of incentive rates applying) had they known in advance what they were actually voting for. 12 days pay is a lot of money to anybody.

I understand that a lot of the staff were pretty pissed off with the union because of the shambles they made of the last vote, not least because of the cost and futility of it all.

Expect a lower turnout and a closer vote.

[The jiffle king]

I was due to be affected last time and was livid about the strike. This time I am not directly impacted, but the union must start to understand that impacting Easter/Christmas and families is not a good way to win sympathy.
If they are at the table negotitating then why call a strike? I know it´s added pressure, but given the reaction last time, I think the staff will still vote for a strike, but a 55/45 split

[Chris Type R]

The threat of a strike has put me off using BA for a flight to SA in April. I wonder how many other people feel the same way and what it's doing to BA's business.

[rs1952]

Chris Type R said:

The threat of a strike has put me off using BA for a flight to SA in April. I wonder how many other people feel the same way and what it's doing to BA's business.

This of course is why, in the long run, strikes hurt both sides. Only when a company has a monopoly in their field can a strike fully succeed, because the punters don't have alternative sources of supply. And you don't find that many monopolies these days! Examples of strikes which have wrecked commercial prospects include:

ASLEF 1955
BL every couple of weeks in the 70s
Miners 1984.

You don't say where your're going in SA but, if its Johannesburg, there are 5 non stop flights a day provided by BA (2), SAA (2) and Virgin (1), and there are umpteen other carriers that will give you a reasonable deal if you're prepared to change planes - Lufthansa, Air Fance, KLM and Emirates spring immediately to mind