It is easy to forget that the British Airways cabin crew dispute is about real people's lives; here, Left Foot Forward presents the testimony of a BA employee.
The British Airways dispute is often portrayed as a battle of wills between management and union bosses, glossing over the fact that people’s livelihoods and lives are at stake. On the day that union members meet for the first time this year, ahead of the next strike ballot which closes on 21 January, we hear from a longtime BA employee on the effect on their life; they have asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals
Cabin crew are a disparate workforce varying enormously in terms of age, race, class and nationality. We don’t know each other. We meet each other for the first time at the pre-flight briefing and after the trip, largely never see each other again. For many of us, attending a union meeting is the first political action we have ever taken. And British Airways cannot understand why 91% of the workforce is unionised, why at every ballot, between 81% and 92% vote to strike and how the union managed to realise that unprecedented degree of solidarity.
There is one simple answer: A company gets the union it deserves.
So for a management fixated on its own cabin crew being the overpaid, under worked, indolent, thieving entity that stands between it and an even greater increase to their personal bonuses and share options, there is also one simple answer: destroy the union.
In pursuit of this quest, British Airways has engaged thoroughly in every principle of union busting, including the creation of a climate of fear among the workforce in an attempt to undermine confidence in the union’s power and its ability to protect and to chip away at the workers’ resolve.
BA created a secret intelligence unit with the specific remit of gathering evidence against striking cabin crew and have actively encouraged staff to inform. They conduct covert surveillance and having dispensed with normal policies and procedures, threaten, suspend and dismiss crew in unprecedented numbers with apparent impunity.
I was one of the suspended cabin crew but am now sacked. I am a single parent, have a good degree and have worked for them for more than ten years. I earned about £27,000 per year. I love my job and always have.
Some of the very best days of my life have been spent on trips with crew who though a bunch of strangers are among the warmest, most dynamic, creative and caring people I have ever known. I may not have always been there for the school play and have had to juggle madly like all working parents with the added difficulty of being away for days on end and doing it all through a haze of chronic jetlag. But my working for the airline has afforded me and my family some incredible experiences.
I have always enjoyed the actual work; the meeting the passengers and making a difference to them, however small. I care about them. I respect them. And it is because of this that I believe in my union’s aims and actions.
Being sacked from BA means not just the loss of my livelihood but also my entire way of life. I don’t know who I am if I am not BA cabin crew. And being sacked is one thing, but being sacked on trumped up charges heard by a kangaroo court as a pawn in a political game is quite another.
It’s actually not, not yet anyway, the how am I going to pay my mortgage that keeps me awake at night. It’s the lies and the injustice and the powerlessness. It’s the moral outrage that I play through my brain on a continuous loop all day and night as though if I run it once more the outcome might be different.
In taking on BA, we cabin crew take on the British anti-union labour laws and the courts, we take on union busters and one of the biggest legal firms in the world, Baker McKenzie. In continuing the fight we expose ourselves to the unbridled vitriol of a largely right-wing press. Our own management will undoubtedly continue removing benefits, making threats and stepping up their campaign of dismissing those who do not yield to their brave new world order.
Prior to this dispute, BA cabin crew may not have been political animals. We are now.
96 Responses to “The BA cabin crew dispute: The view from the shop floor”
Dan Davis
For the millionth time – BA have less crew at Gatwick because there is NO FIRST CLASS cabin on Gatwick flights. First Class is labour intensive and requres 3 crew. That same cabin area with Club seats (as at LGW and a handfull LHR flights) requires 2 crew ONLY.
Got it now?
Will those Watersiders who don’t know these basics kindly stop ranting about LGW having less crew. You just are showing that you do not know AT ALL what you are talking about!
Jonathon James
Rum & Barney
point 1,cabin crew do not agree to these imposed changes. – but Cabin Crew aren’t running the business, that’s what you have managers for.
2. The direct effect of reducing manpower is to increase workload-for all the crew. Very true, but your point is ?? I’m sure that a lot of other parts of BA have seen a reduction in manpower and a consequent increase in workload. Why should cabin crew be exempt ?
3. Discretionary payments- Also known as overtime. – Again, your point is what ?
4.The company is reducing pay not production. Um… not for existing staff. As far as I have read, BA management have offerd a pay RISE of 6% over two years.
5.We did consolidate some of our pay. Thank goodness. – Good.
Crew are being victimised.Punished for being anywhere near Terminal 5 or Airport Hotels during strike days. – Um are you saying that strikers who are on CAA property (something they are not entitled to do) are being taken to task ? A friend of mine was at the Arora hotel during the strike and was horrified at the busload of strikers who were hurling abuse at any BA staff in uniform as the drove down the A4. He said it was pure bullying.
As far as the contention that BA has the highest non-flying to flying staff ratio, did the figures for other airlines include a headcount for all the services they buy in, services that BA deliver inhouse ? Like engineering, ground handling, sales,IT etc. ?? Suspect they didn’t. You have to be very careful with statistics.
From memory when you apply for a mortgage you provide the lender with details of your last three months payslips. The lender will write to the company to check that you are still employed by them, but it is down to the individual seeking the mortgage to be certain that they will be able to make any repayments.
As far as the assertion that the 1000 members who attended a rally are representative of the the total membership. I’m afraid that is pure tosh. To start with, they are a self selecting group. Only those who fully back the union position will attend. Dissenters will steer clear. Moreover, attendees would be those who were on a day off or had just finished work. Cabin crew who lived any distance from the venue would be less inclined to make the journey unless they were ardent supporters. Hardly surprising then that the attendees were very supportivbe of the union position, but to extrapolate from that and say they represent the views of the total membership is pure fantasy.
Finally, BA’s headquarters must be a very nice working environment. It’s a pity I don’t work there. It’s a bigger pity that I don’t work for BA – there was a clue in my posting to that effect which you chose to ignore.
There are a lot of people who do not work for BA who have commented on this. Just because we may hold a different view to you does not automatically mean we are BA management. The fact that you immediately spring to that assumption rather shows how little you understand about the way that businesses operate. I’m sure BA management are not blameless, but you do your cause no favours by leaping to conclusions based on little real evidence.
John
They came for the baggage handlers and I said nothing for I was a pilot, Then they came for the check in staff and I said nothing for I was a pilot, Then they came for the cabin crew and I said nothing for I was a pilot, Then they came for the pilots!!!
Bullied of Heathrow
As far as I see it, you have 2 sides, one side are in the business of making profit for themselves and those who choose to invest in the company. On the other side you have people trying to keep a roof over their heads, feed children and keep wolves from the door. Spin all the figures you like, call this one and that one, he said, she said.
Johnathon James, you seem quite keen to have the Cabin Crew’s salaries pushed down and down and down with no concern for them, quite trite in the knowledge that they will have to work more and more for less and less. This says a lot about you. May the Lord have mercy on your soul.
olly590
RT @leftfootfwd: The BA cabin crew dispute: The view from the shop floor http://bit.ly/hV7ptR