BA Strike Latest: CEO Willie Walsh Gives a Strike Day 2 Video Update

British Airways CEO Willie Walsh has taken to YouTube again to send out another report on BA’s operations during the strike.

I really applaud BA for putting out these honest and informative video updates. It contrasts greatly to the lies being put out by the UNITE union.

We’ll have a post a little later with some on the ground BA strike reports.

BA Strike Latest: British Airways CEO Willie Walsh Gives a Video Strike Update

Well, the first day of the British Airways strike is behind us and it went very well for British Airways. They flew all the flights they planned in their contingency plan. The public is in overwhelming support of BA and many cabin crew broke the picket lines and turned up to work – allowing BA to add more flights. There was a complete lack of chaos at Terminal 5 at Heathrow.

Here’s a video update from Willie Walsh on how the first day of the BA strike went:

The British Airways cabin crew strike continues tomorrow and Monday with another strike scheduled for next weekend as well.

BA Strike Latest: British Airways Strike Begins – Updates from the Ground

Since the failure of talks yesterday to reach an accord, the BA Cabin Crew Union UNITE has gone ahead with their scheduled strikes.

British Airways had a plan in place and hoped to fly at 65% capacity using volunteer crews from other parts of BA and from strike breaking cabin crew.

Reports indicate that there are a lot of cabin crew breaking the strike and showing up for work (perhaps it was the threat they would lose their free travel perks?). Things are pretty orderly at Terminal 5 at Heathrow – striking cabin crew were banned from picketing there and many affected passengers knew in advance their flights would be cancelled since BA was very proactive this week in keeping ticket holders updated and informed. There is no chaos at Heathrow airport.

Passengers, in general, are taking it in stride and not blaming BA – the cabin crew are and the union are taking the blame and the heat of criticism.

Here’s a couple comments from the BBC Have your Say Page:

“I am cabin crew for BA but won’t be striking. Those that are should be ashamed of themselves. We are employed by one of the best employers in the country and during difficult times should feel honoured and privileged not only to work for BA, but to be working at all. I seriously hope that the small-mindedness of a few, will ruin BA’s reputation further and therefore causing untold damage to the company we all work for and love.”

“Our flight today (Saturday) was cancelled. We have been offered a flight on 23 March. Although outside the strike days, it is ’subject to disruption’. BA have acted extremely well throughout. Unite are the disgrace. They have no interest in the airline, the passengers or Britain’s good reputation. They have acted in a rapacious and unreasonable manner. I do hope that BA can survive this. I’ve just checked my flight up to Manchester with BA this weekend, I thought it would be cancelled, but I can see that it’s still operating – but operated by Ryanair! Apparently BA have ‘wet-leased’ these aircraft. I have no problem with Ryanair and I’m very grateful to BA!”

“I am scheduled to fly back from Abu Dhabi tonight with BA. The flight is showing as operating normally. However, if it is not I will rebook. I don’t hold BA responsible at all, the are competing in a global market and have to do what is viable to their business. The faster the union officials realise that, the better it will be for us all.

BA is our national flag carrier and they are not being unreasonable as anyone who travels a lot will testify. It is interesting to note that the only negative comments I have read are from passengers that possibly only travel once a year for holidays. Those of us that are used to the high standards BA have in all classes on the aircraft and the extensive and good schedules, want to see the airline back at the top and they have to be allowed to achieve that!”

Here are some updates from the ground.

From the BBC:

Terminal 5 was teeming with stewards acting as guides for thousands of BA staff who have volunteered to replace striking cabin crew, the stewards were there to guide them though their first day on the job.
The airline has assured passengers the volunteers have been fully trained for the job.

I was a passenger on one of just a few scheduled flights with BA cabin crew who did turn up for work.
The three-man team told me they decided to cross the picket line and were allocated on the flight to Amsterdam.

One worker – who didn’t wished to be named – said he may regret it “but he and other colleagues were thinking about the long term effects the strike would have on the company”.

The majority of passengers found themselves flying on BA planes operated by relatively unknown European airlines such as Jet 2 or Viking which provide their own cabin crew.

So far so good for a majority of passengers at Terminal 5 but with 1,100 BA flights cancelled over the next three days, my experience will be a rare one.

The word cancelled is already appearing on the flight information boards leaving some travellers at a loss, but the expected scenes of travel chaos may have been averted with many passengers opting to take earlier flights or switching airlines.

We’ve also been monitoring Twitter – here are some interesting tweets related to the ongoing British Airways cabin crew strike:

@flyingwithfish: Due to higher than expected @BritishAirways cabin crew reporting for duty, during the #BAStrike, #BA is reistating some canceled flights.

@flyingwithfish: Will @BritishAirways cabin crews sustain the @UniteTheUnion #BAStrike’s “Part II” given the low internal support for the strike? #airline

@chris_globe: Well done #Unite, all you’ve done is prove you’re complete and utter toss pots, well done #BritishAirways, not spoken to anyone who’s stuck!

@BritishAirways: Heathrow and Gatwick operation off to a good start today. City airport operating normally.

@chinesecockney: Good to see a lot of crew ignoring the useless Unite Union. Shame on those striking. #backingba #BA #britishairways

@ProDogsDirect: For those interested in #BAstrike, I hear that Gatwick flights are running almost as normal. Nearly 100% crew went to work.

Stay tuned to Anglotopia for the latest British Airways Strike updates. You can also get the latest strike updates directly from British Airways on their website here.

BA Strike Latest: Video Message from British Airways CEO to BA Customers

British Airways have just released this video message from BA CEO Willie Walsh directed at BA customers affected by the strike that is going to start at Midnight and last until Monday.

Here’s another statement:

British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh has released an online video message to customers reassuring them of practical measures in place to support their travel plans over Unite’s planned strike this weekend.

Talking directly to customers, he apologises for the disruption they may face and explains contingency plans to allow more than 60 per cent of customers to keep flying through Unite’s strike period of March 20, 21 and 22.

The first online video was launched last Friday (March 12) and has since received approximately 100,000 hits from a combined audience of ba.com and YouTube, as well as external websites hosting the video and BA’s internal staff website.

Chris Davies, British Airways head of digital marketing, said: “We have been working around the clock to provide the most up to date information on ba.com, as well as provide bespoke video updates for customers. We have also been engaging on social media sites and travel forums.

“It is our highest priority to provide the latest information to our customers and reassure them that a strike will not ground our airline.”

The BA strike begins in a little under 6 hours.

BA Strike Latest: British Airways/Unite Talks Break Down – Strike is a Go

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.

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