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Last week, British Airways (BA) was coaxed back to the negotiating table, as talks with general workers' union, Unite, entered their fourteenth month. BA has been embroiled in a cost-cutting dispute with its own cabin crew since the middle of last year, drawing comment from politicians, employment experts, and, of course, innumerable Facebook campaigns.
The beleaguered airline lost 200,000 passengers and £45m during last month’s industrial action, suggesting that BA’s contingency plans are not as robust as airline boss, Willie Walsh, likes to claim. The strike also managed to upset passenger numbers for the industry as a whole, with the British Airports Authority posting a 1.5% plunge in travellers using its six airports.
Unite had previously promised to withhold all strikes over the Easter weekend, in a bid to keep passengers sweet to the union’s cause, but a week of delays leading up to Good Friday had much the same effect on BA’s plans. Budget airlines began offering rescue fares to angry passengers, and the UK’s flag-carrier struggled through one of the most lucrative holidays of the year.
Easter ultimately became the straw that broke the airline’s back, and BA executives were welcomed back to the table by Unite secretary, Tony Woodley – ‘I am pleased that some serious progress has been made over the issues which have divided us.’ The airline was equally optimistic about the future, and offered its crew a new proposal on Monday.
Whether BA’s sudden change of heart is due to the strength of Unite’s picket lines or the news that the airline is heading for a £600m pre-tax loss is debatable, but there will be many people glad to see the end of BA’s pocket civil war, least of all Britain’s many travellers.
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