Two of my friends work for BA one was recruited last year and came over from Portugal to work as cabin crew for BA based at Gatwick on lower pay and different conditions of service. The other has been cabin crew with BA for many years and he works from Heathrow with better conditions and pay than H who works from Gatwick. They are both members of unite.
BA has been in financial trouble for sometimes or at least their share holders who are not very interested in fairness have been complaining about the fact that their dividends have gone down so BA started a programme of action which includes the Gatwigfication of terms and conditions.
BA wants all staff to be on terms and conditions that reflect what new recruits based at Gatwick have. But they went even further and they are now going to be reducing salaries even for those who work from Gatwick. So all cabin crew members are, correctly, up in arms and the recent ballot showed the strength of feeling with 80% of unite members taking part in the process and 90% of those voting for strike action! That is an amazing result! So based on what friends who are in the profession say (and there is lots of them in my community) the talk is about fighting and not putting up with the disgraceful behaviour that BA management have embarked on.
In conclusion I would say that both the postal workers and cabin crew staff have shown us that it is possible for those of us active in the union to take unacceptable policies on and fight for what is right. We should now be preparing for what is going to be a year of hardship and should be ready for a fight. Organise, recruit and fight back. Those are the words that should determine what we do in the next year for we will face a major attack by our employers who want us to pay for what mess the bankers created! Lets take them on!
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