Unions reach for the sky

Cabin crew at Virgin Atlantic are set to receive a 4.8% pay rise this year, and have been given a guarantee that their pay will increase in line with inflation in 2009.

A two-year deal agreed with the Unite general union this month also includes a commitment to a pay review next year.

In December, 71% of the union’s members at Virgin Atlantic voted to take strike action over pay, claiming that they earned far less than their counterparts in rival companies.

Virgin founder Richard Branson fanned the flames of the dispute by telling cabin crew that they “should consider working elsewhere” if they felt underpaid.

But agreement on the new deal – which “recognises the important contribution cabin crew make to the business”, according to Unite national officer Brian Boyd – was reached two days before the first 48-hour strike was due to start.

• More threatened strike action, this time at the seven airports run by the BAA, was averted this month when managers agreed to “a period of meaningful consultation and negotiation” with Unite and the PCS public services union over the future of the company’s final-salary pension scheme.

The pension scheme, described by Unite’s Brian Boyd as “financially sound”, will be reopened to new staff while the talks take place.