Aviation workers may take action

As staff at airports operator BAA began voting on industrial action over pay, British Airways cabin crew once again rejected company proposals aimed at ending their long-running dispute.

BA cabin crew, members of the Unite union, rejected the company’s “final” pay offer in last month’s ballot by more than two to one (3,419 to 1,686). Numbers voting were down on previous ballots (out of Unite’s 11,000 members). But such a large “no” vote after all the pressure and intimidation was a powerful response from union members who refuse to be browbeaten.

Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley said: “In a free vote — without any recommendation from the union — only 15% of crew accepted the deal that [chief executive] Willie Walsh claimed would be resoundingly accepted.”

In BAA’s case, union members have been irritated by a below-inflation pay offer, coupled with the withholding of bonus payments, following on from last year’s pay freeze. The company has offered a pay rise of just 1% with a further half a per cent, conditional on sickness policy changes.

Members of three BAA unions (PCS, Prospect and Unite) are balloting staff at Gatwick, Heathrow, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton and Stansted for a strike and for action short of a strike.

The ballots close on 12 August. In consultative ballots union members voted by more than nine to one to reject the offer.