No consensus reached between airline and Unite representatives
By Luke Whitmore, 2nd August 2010
British Airways today entered into talks with the Unite union
which represents the interests of their cabin crew, but quickly
adjourned without reaching any agreement.
The airline organised the meeting hoping to prevent more strikes
from materialising, after Unite voted against BA's "final" pay
offer and subsequently threatened that further industrial action
may take place this September.
The union has already organised 22 days of strikes since March,
and there currently seems to be no end in sight after members
rejected the most recent offer from BA in a ballot held last
month.
Nonetheless, BA has suggested that any negotiations would
revolve around this rejected offer, with Unite sources claiming
that there is no real reason to believe that the airline is
planning to change their approach to the disagreements.
BA's approach was similarly cautious, with chief executive
Willie Walsh explaining that they were continuing with an ongoing
plan to train volunteer cabin crew as a preparation for any further
industrial action.
It has been suggested that talks will resume next week.
Derek Simpson, Unite's joint leader, claimed that it was "never
our intention to see BA struggle," but that questions had to be
raised about how the company was being managed.
"We would far prefer to see it thrive and the way to ensure this
is to settle peacefully with cabin crew," he explained.
The talks come shortly after the airline reported a quarterly
pre-tax loss of £164m for the April - June period, in which 15 of
the 22 strike days fell. The figures, announced last week, were
blamed on the disruption caused by Unite's cabin crew strikes, in
addition to the chaos that followed in the wake of the Icelandic
volcano eruption and subsequent ash cloud.
These circumstances have resulted in a vast number of cancelled
flights and compensation claims from affected customers.
If you've been affected by delayed or cancelled flights, you may
find our free Flight Delay Compensation
guide useful.
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