Where’s Willie? Trying his hand at Union busting!

Our comrades, the striking cabin crews of BA, have turned Heathrow’s terminal 5 into a “ghost town.” BA, an airline that has marketed itself as a premium brand carrier, is cutting cabin crew staff. By doing so they are undermining the very service on which the BA reputation has been built. By defending both their right to maintain a decent standard of living and a larger vision of the airline’s interests, our Unite comrades have been forced into industrial action. Willie Walsh, BA’s Chief Executive, has comprehensively shown that he wants the strike. He made this desire transparent by tabling a deal that was actually worse than an earlier offer that the union had already rejected.

The BA workers stand accused in the right wing media kangaroo court of indifference to the welfare of a potential 2.5 million members of the travelling public. Their earlier strike action in December was nullified by a bizarre judicial ruling. Quite accidentally a small number of votes had been counted that were from recent former BA employees who had already been made redundant and were not eligible to vote. This statistically insignificant miss-poll meant that this industrial action was always going to come just weeks before the general election. Some government ministers are running scared before the media-created image that Unite is run by militant totalitarians whose goals are malevolent and misguided, and have joined the union bashing chorus as a result. They should, instead, be defending the democratic rights of unions to strike.

Is the pre-election timing of this mere coincidence? Or, as seems more likely, to whip up a taste for orchestrated union-bashing in anticipation of a change in governmental colour?

John McDonnell, MP and Labour Resource Council Chair, has said regarding the BA strike, “This dispute is a prime example of the current industrial relations climate, with the employer not only seeking to win but to break the union too.”

On the Unite website BA sources are quoted as stating that "Some media reports on our flight operations during the period of Unite’s strike have appeared to give equal weight to information we have issued as to claims made by Unite." This was followed by a statement that claims BA’s requirement to perform at PLC-expected standards means that their statements had to be truthful because of this legal status. The logical sequel to this argument was – according to BA – that the press should ignore information from Unite! Apparently the honesty of some leaders of private business has apparently never been called into question! Pardon us, Mr. Walsh, if the antics of people like Fred Goodwin, Bernie Madoff, and the management team of Enron have turned us into sceptics regarding the reliability of corporate integrity.

So UNISON, the public service union, stands as one with her sister Unite: in voices a million members strong we stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity. Our brothers and sisters have the right, indeed the responsibility to defend a decent living standard for themselves and future generations of BA cabin crews. The principles of “negotiation, not imposition” and the right to demand a living wage receives our full support!

- Karen Michael, UNISON steward