Well, despite last minute efforts to come to an accord, talks between British Airways and Unite have broken down without an agreement and the strike starting tomorrow – March 20th – lasting until March 22nd will go forward as planned.
Here’s a statement directly from British Airways:
We are very disappointed that, despite lengthy negotiations, Unite has rejected the chance of a settlement and resolved that its strikes should go ahead.
We are confident our cabin crew would accept our latest offer if Unite put it to them.
In recent days, we have shown considerable flexibility in the interests of protecting customers from the effects of this completely unjustified industrial action.
We have put forward proposals that would secure long-term pay protection for all existing crew, new opportunities for crew at Gatwick and modernisation of our industrial relations framework.
Despite the recognition by the High Court that our changes to onboard crew numbers were valid and reasonable, we have also been prepared to make some modification to these changes to allow Unite to call off the strikes.
It is a great pity that Unite continues to show such disregard for the interests of our customers and our business – and for public opinion at large.
We will continue to strengthen our contingency plans to ensure that as many customers as possible can fly to their destinations during the strike period.
We know that many cabin crew will work normally in the days ahead, and we look forward to their contribution – and that of tens of thousands of colleagues across the airline – as we keep our customers and our aircraft flying.
British Airways has a strike plan in place and expects to fly at 65% capacity this weekend. If you’re going to be affected by the strike, visit the British Airways strike staging page for more information on how it will affect you.
Author Info - Jonathan is a consummate Anglophile with an obsession for Britain that borders on psychosis. He keeps Anglotopia running in his spare time, always dreaming of his next trip to England, wishing he lived there - specifically Dorset - and is always trying to figure out a way to move to England. It will happen one day. Keep up with him on Twitter here. Read more from this author
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dream of living in the UK a reality.