British Airways strengthens flight schedule as court mulls union bid to reinstate strikes

BA dispute could roll into summer

LONDON — As the courts consider allowing immediate strikes planned by British Airways cabin crews, one thing about the heated dispute between the carrier and its workers seems certain — there’s no sign of it ending any time soon.

More strikes over the summer are a strong possibility as the standoff becomes increasingly personal and bitter, threatening vacation plans for millions of travelers and deepening the loss-making carrier’s financial troubles.

Patience is wearing thin among both the business community and general public over the monthslong saga.

“It’s one thing for BA to stand and hold its ground, and the union may believe it has a strong case for its actions, but without the customer you haven’t got a business to be worrying about,” said Bob Atkinson, of travel website travelsupermarket.com. “There’s very little sympathy out there.”

Atkinson said the ongoing uncertainty could cause long-term damage to the British flag carrier’s reputation, particularly among leisure travelers.

“If you’re booking one big holiday, it’s a big decision,” he said. “In the medium to long term, it is undermining the BA brand and the value of flying BA.”

BA was forced to cancel several flights this week in preparation for the first of a wave of back-to-back walkouts that was called off at the last minute by the High Court on a technical issue regarding the union’s ballot of workers.

On Wednesday, the airline was still unwinding the contingency plans it had put in place to cope with the walkout, including scrapping several services and leasing alternate aircraft complete with crew.

It was running a full schedule at Gatwick and London City airports as it awaited a ruling from the Court of Appeal on Thursday on the Unite union’s appeal to overturn the High Court decision barring the strike. At Heathrow, all long-haul services were operating, but a third of its short-haul program was grounded. The airline said it would not return to a full flying schedule until after the Court of Appeal decision.

If the strikes are reinstated for the remaining 15 days, they will have a big impact during a period when BA usually flies some 700,000 passengers each day. The three blocks of five-day walkouts, running through to early June, include a summer school vacation period, a long weekend and the run-up to the football World Cup in South Africa.

Even worse, chances are that BA has simply delayed the inevitable by taking the matter to court.

Regardless of Thursday’s decision, Unite has indicated it intends to push forward with more strikes, taking the walkouts deeper into the peak summer period.

Unite, which represents around 90 percent of BA’s 12,000 cabin crew members, and BA have failed to agree a new deal over changes to working conditions, including cutting the number of staff on long-haul flights and a temporary pay freeze, that the airline argues are necessary to ensure its survival in a post financial crisis world.

BA is due to post a third annual record loss when it reports its annual results on Friday, but the union says it has already agreed to significant savings and that the airline is now going too far.

Both sides have made some provocative moves that have deepened the rift. Cabin crews went ahead with a seven-day strike in March, costing the airline at least 45 million pounds ($65.8 million), despite receiving a revised offer from the airline. BA retaliated by taking disciplinary action against some 50 cabin crew after that walkout, giving rise to union allegations of bullying and intimidation.

The airline’s latest move to drag the courts into the spat has been condemned by unions as an affront to the longheld democratic right of workers to walk off the job in industrial disputes.

Monday’s ruling was the third court injunction preventing a major transport strike in less than six months, including a BA walkout over Christmas, leading legal experts to warn that unions will have to do more to meet intricate industry laws.

Aware of deteriorating public opinion, Unite this week also launched a public campaign to try win over the public. Full-page ads in British newspapers carried a message from a BA staffer questioning why “Brutish Airways” was “blowing millions on trying to crush and humiliate me.”