Darren Wheeler wrote:Give it a few months and BA will be in strike turmoil again.
When the unions hate WWW and WWW hates the unions, conflict will not be far away.
I don't think that's a fair comment.
WW is not anti-union. But there certain behaviours he won't tolerate.
A lot of hugely significant changes were agreed with the unions (pensions scheme changes, ground staff working practices, productivity improvements post Lehmans collapse) whilst he was CEO behind closed doors. Yes, there have been strikes from the cabin crew, but he got through significant changes in the process. And it is a fair argument that all the structural reforms he achieved has put IAG in a position to do this deal.
Remember IAG is buying bmi from its own cash balances with no reliance on external funding (which is very scant at the moment) and it's able to absorb the costs of the estimated two year restructuring to turn bmi around.
What will VS get from this? Unless it has an urge to get slots to launch routes where competition will be lessened (Moscow, Cairo etc), absolutely nothing.
Virgin has also hardly been a model of industrial relations harmony over the past few years.