BA Strike

[Darren Wheeler]

To do the link. use this format, replacing { with [

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To do the link. use this format, replacing { with [

{url=http://abcxyz.com}short name{/url}

Ahhh, OK, no double inverted commas!!!! Thanks.

Be interesting at T5 next week to see all these different planes, and to see Ryanair at Heathrow!

Ryanair anyone????

Ouch! Though seeing a Ryanair 737 pulled up at T5 will be funny!

Ryanair anyone????

Ouch! Though seeing a Ryanair 737 pulled up at T5 will be funny!

They'll keep them to remote stands well away from T5!
737 is non-pallet luggage.

Ryanair anyone????

Ouch! Though seeing a Ryanair 737 pulled up at T5 will be funny!

They'll keep them to remote stands well away from T5!
737 is non-pallet luggage.

So they'll put them with the 757's in T3 for the same luggage reason!

Ryanair anyone????

I suppose it will give passengers the chance to get used to the service level that Willie Walsh would like to have on domestic flights..

Ouch! Though seeing a Ryanair 737 pulled up at T5 will be funny!

They'll keep them to remote stands well away from T5!
737 is non-pallet luggage.

So they'll put them with the 757's in T3 for the same luggage reason!

BA has been using 757s from stands at T5 recently, so the pallet rule is not absolute.

Love the comment about the standard of service WW is driving BA down to!

BA has been using 757s from stands at T5 recently, so the pallet rule is not absolute.

Nice to hear. My last two BA flights have been out of T3 as even though both outbounds were A320's, the inbounds were on the 757.

I gather they are keeping Ryanair even further from T5 --- LGW!

[Nottingham Nick]

Apologies if it has been mentioned before, but I laughed at a full page ad in the Independent this morning by Sleazyjet.

It offers BA Gold card holders free priority boarding on sleazyjet flights during the strike.

Nick

And Ryanair also on the bandwagon.

Pity they couldn't get the dates right!

I want to see some baggage handler built like a brick s**thouse acting as CC dressed in a tight skirt, plastered on make-up and a face like a smacked a*s*

I want to see some baggage handler built like a brick s**thouse acting as CC dressed in a tight skirt, plastered on make-up and a face like a smacked a*s*

Not been on BA for a while ???

[Decker]

must we be exposed to your rough trade fetishes?

must we be exposed to your rough trade fetishes?

It just reminded me of an 'Alas Smith & Jones' sketch where they are on a plane and there is one of those 'anyone with aviation experience on board' announcements and Mel Smith responds as he's a pilot and is expecting to be asked to land or somesuch but they are a CC down so he ends up in a uniform pushing the meal trolley !

Hmm. Self serving unions versus an exasperated, but fair management, only trying to do their best against an ungrateful workforce with the abandoned passengers as the pawns.

I don't actually belong to a union, the company I work for is and always has been decent and open. However I know people who belong to unions, some think they are great some think they are rubbish. I wouldn't know. I do know that the media is hostile to unions and the default coverage is how to cope with strikers, rather than 'why has it come to this?'.

But I think it's a bit unfair of everyone to tell BA staff 'you just have to lump it' 'I had to take a pay cut so why don't you' etc. etc. I have posted before that BA staff appear to me, to be knocked from pillar to post by their management. Has there been a year recently when BA hasn't been in some sort of crisis?

The Gate Gourmet walkout, the Terminal 5 shambles, Future Size and Shape, Business Efficiency Programme, the Gatwick restructurings (how many now?) - then there are the various stories which place BA in a negative light (even when I agree with BA on them) but they all present an image of BA as being inept.

An open letter from BA Cabin Crew appeared on the Travelmole website.
You have to be registered to read it, but a summary is below. (I don't believe there are any copyright issues.)

...this is not a hotbed of irresponsible left-wing militants trying to bring down an airline, but a predominantly female, professional and loyal, family orientated, middle England and middle class workforce, desperately trying to save it.

So bravo chaps. And the worse thing? You all know this, but it suits your different aims to allow decent, hard working, caring people to be falsely demonized in this way.

We know the good job that we do for our airline, and our customers appreciate the way we look after them; we don't want to strike nor do we want to inconvenience a single customer, but we feel that we have been left with no other way to get our voices heard.

The campaign against cabin crew is helping British Airways to adopt a service style synonymous with our current cheerless CEO.

We don't want that; we want to be proud to do the job that we love. We want to be able to say, 'yes we can' and 'hope you enjoyed your flight', not spend the whole flight apologising for ill thought through cost cutting measures.

We want to come to work without fear and with pride once again. We firmly believe that it is cabin crew who truly fly the flag for our airline - and yes, with a smile, not a sneer

And if unions are so destructive, how does SouthWest Airlines, arguably the worlds most successful airline, work when it is so heavily unionised?

Easy. They work with their staff. They talk to their staff. They listen to their staff.

Maybe a bit simplistic when it comes to a "legacy" airline - but as the strike approaches surely there could have been another way.

There are lots of interesting comments in that letter and Sealink's post.

I read a letter in The Guardian proclaiming that the CC had been 'pressurised' and 'bullied' into voting 'yes'. Obviously by someone who had no idea that union ballots were all by secret postal votes and not mass meetings (and have been like this for 20+ years)

It has been shown in the UK, US and in other countries where Management and Unions work together the company / organisation prospers. That does not mean there is never any change or redundancies but the important thing is that they work together. It still does not guarentee no strikes etc but its worth trying !

This means Management talking to the Unions 'we have this problem how can you help solve it'. The management need to be open about problems. I think that if BA had done this a long time ago there would have been no dispute. This approach does work because BA and Unite reached agreement on the pension fund because they were open about it.

Management in any organisation needs to talk to the people who actually do the job to find out their ideas or to see what impact a change might have. Too often management imposed 'solutions' have ended up costing more than they were supposed to save because they have no idea about the actual effects the change has whereas ideas generated by staff generally save more then estimated.

I am not saying that the managers should be stopped from managing but there are different management techniques. Maybe if BA opened the toolbox a little it more ...

Apologies if it has been mentioned before, but I laughed at a full page ad in the Independent this morning by Sleazyjet.

It offers BA Gold card holders free priority boarding on sleazyjet flights during the strike.
Nick

Those BA upstarts can get to the back of the Speedy Boarding queue. We can tell who they are, and we don't care . Remember - the true EZY customer boards from the back steps...

[Darren Wheeler]

Meeting going on now at Sandown Park. The reporter on BBC News was saying that some had flown in for the meeting and that everyone was too scared to talk to them on camera...

Nice to see that the BBC has provided a helpful video to those who will be on chartered aircraft.

Link

"Should the passengers have any safety concerns?" Stupid question.

And Ryanair also on the bandwagon.

I'd love to see some of the faces of BA passengers this weekend when they hear this whilst boarding their chartered aircraft....

Link to You Tube

[Darren Wheeler]

Talks have "collapsed" and the strike will now go ahead as planned.

[mitchja]

And Ryanair also on the bandwagon.

I'd love to see some of the faces of BA passengers this weekend when they hear this whilst boarding their chartered aircraft....

Link to You Tube

Don't forget the obligatory clapping once the A/C lands too

Talks have "collapsed" and the strike will now go ahead as planned.

BBC News Link

We are having to fly BA Ryanair on our return flight up to Man from LGW after returning from Orlando. Just glad to be getting home to be honest, but glad it is only an hour or so flight!!!!!

I'll take a photo of our faces if you like!!