Len McCluskey blows his cool and announces plans for British Airways cabin crew strikes

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• Opus says:

  28 Jul28 July 22:40

  Does anyone know what unite actually wants? Because now that BA has said basic pay won’t reduce by 20% it’s now fire and rehire. No more 60% reduction in salaries overnight. Like what does unite actually want??? Like can somebody actually identify what they want? They want BA to keep all their crew and pay them their salary as is? Because they’re not very clear. The section 188 I believe the pilots also received that but like we know they achieved a deal.

  • 351 says:

    28 Jul28 July 22:46

    All BASSA (WW/ED) keeping existing terms & conditions and pay whilst other departments and even fellow colleagues can bite the dust in their interest. That’s essentially what Unite wants and where all the political power within Unite’s BA sub-branches lies!

  • grex9101 says:

    29 Jul29 July 07:27

    They want everyone to keep their jobs and retain their conditions. It’s that simple. Quite why you fail to understand that is concerning.

    • Mark says:

      29 Jul29 July 07:31

      +1

      • cinereus says:

        29 Jul29 July 07:40

        +1

    • Opus says:

      29 Jul29 July 08:03

      I wanted to make sure. They hadn’t made it very clear. Anyway that’s outrageous and goes to show he clearly does not understand what is going on

• Joe says:

  28 Jul28 July 23:10

  Why do they even still listen to the unions. It’s not like the staff have any bargaining power at present.

  • J says:

    28 Jul28 July 23:56

    The unions originally opposed the creation of Mixed Fleet and very correctly predicted that BA would devalue the product and service (as well as attack pay and conditions). 10+ years later and the brand is trashed. If they had short haul competition from easyJet at Heathrow they’d be stuffed – no wonder they don’t want a 3rd runway.

    • marcw says:

      29 Jul29 July 01:15

      i don’t agree BAs product and service is devalued. I think it has improved ages: affordable, competitive, more destinations than ever before, and a fantastic new business product. Of course, an excellent FFP (Except the surcharges).

      The other day I was looking some newspapers from 10 years ago, and BA was promoting London – Barcelona as a “sale” fare for £174. In economy.

      • John Corbett says:

        29 Jul29 July 04:12

        You must have had a drink before writing. BA is, and always has been, and I guess, always will be many paces behind the other major airlines (Business Class). Before the ‘refit’ the ClubWorld cabin was a dirty disgrace!

        • David says:

          29 Jul29 July 04:39

          +100

        • Opus says:

          29 Jul29 July 08:05

          Like who though? Air France? KLM? LH? In terms of latest business offering across all 3 I think BA has the best at the moment

      • J says:

        29 Jul29 July 08:24

        In economy though for a passenger without status there isn’t any difference between BA and easyJet (I’d even extend that to Wizz and Ryanair). How is that an improvement? Obviously none of these airlines have a look in at Heathrow…

        • Opus says:

          29 Jul29 July 10:11

          True, fair enough.

        • J says:

          29 Jul29 July 10:45

          I’m a short haul economy flyer without status and consider BA leagues ahead of Easyjet. If you just add up add ons then your point holds, but for every other part of the experience, I feel BA is superior.

        • J says:

          29 Jul29 July 14:10

          Ryanair offer better legroom – and for a small charge I can guarantee hand luggage. If Stansted were more convenient I’d pick Ryanair over BA short haul as in economy it’s a better hard product (I am only Bronze though).

        • J says:

          29 Jul29 July 14:59

          That’s good to hear – I did 100+ flights with Ryanair in the 2000s and loved every one of them – but then the hassle of being in airports an hour outside of the city and waking up at 3am to catch a 6.45am flight just stopped being worth it for me. I guess it all just depends what our most frequent routes are and what airlines best provide – for my routes Ryanair hasn’t changed in those respects.

          Easyjet offers better airports and better times, but I’ve had terrible reliability over the years: Ryanair (100+ flights, longest delay – one of 2 hours), BA (150+ flights, longest delay – one of 3 hours), Easyjet (40+ flights – one delay of 4 days, two of 48 hours and frequent 2 hour+ delays). One of the 2 day delays was last year, and they refused my EU261 claim for £50 of supermarket and takeaway food for a family of four.

          But I’m happy to accept my Easyjet experiences may be an extreme!

        • Lady London says:

          29 Jul29 July 15:59

          As someone who’s time and time again waited 1-2 hours for the last Easyjet flight of the day with the adjacent gate seeing Ryanair leave on time for practically the same route last thing at night, I came to the conclusion my flight is really scheduled to depart at 11pm not 10pm only Easyjet is lying not publishing that.

          Arriving into Gatwick particularly on a Sunday night this puts you immediately into the hardly-any-transport period and the always-train-problems-at-Gatwick-on-a-Sunday-late-night period making a 4 hour difference late in reaching home sometimes so 4am instead of 1am.

          Talking to crews the plane was iften on its 4th rotation of the day. Whereas for Ryanair it was the 3rd. Always this kind of delay on that Easyjet last flight but never enough to claim compo. So the Ryanair flying experience I just grew out of but reluctantly I must admit they are more on time than Easyjet and this was borne out by the stats.

        • J says:

          29 Jul29 July 22:25

          Indeed statistically I’m pretty sure Ryanair usually win for being on time – not surprising really given they don’t operate different aircraft and run a v lean operation. So if BA can’t beat Ryanair on punctuality, leg room/hard product etc – as well as price what do they really have going for them beyond a frequent flyer programme and Heathrow slots? If they ever end up facing competition at Heathrow from another LCC they’re toast. BA obviously can’t beat the original LCC’s at their own game, there’s clearly space in the market for a full service airline, Walsh/Cruz however just want to milk the Heathrow monopoly – unfortunately for the future of BA it might not last forever.

• Gavin says:

  28 Jul28 July 23:54

  As I know from my former day job, len is a total s**t; totally unequalled to represent his members’ best interests.

• Paul says:

  29 Jul29 July 00:15

  Perhaps you don’t understand that the British sense of ‘Fair Play’ runs deep in the psyche of the British people.

  This is pure mcluskey Brexit xenophobia. It translates.

  You don’t know anything cos your foreign

  Much as I loath what IAG have done to BA and that I dislike Cruz because he has all but destroyed a famous brand. I probably dislike mcluskey more. He seems to be a 70’s throwback of union leaders.

  BAs behaviour is shocking and should be stopped but mccluskey’s approach is throw petrol on a fire. He will lose!

  • Sandra says:

    29 Jul29 July 11:27

    +1 My immediate thoughts too – this reads like a throwback to the 70s. McCluskey is a total dinosaur with no grasp of reality.

• John Corbett says:

  29 Jul29 July 04:14

  Some of those curmudgeonly older staff HAVE to go!

• Mike says:

  29 Jul29 July 07:14

  Gosh I never thought I would agree with Len McCluskey, but he does have a point “It is your staff, not you, that have for many years, built the good name of British Airways and contributed billions of pounds to its profitability year on year.”……………………….I don’t think Alex turning up once in a high viz vest once actually contribute much………………………………..

• Rob Collins says:

  29 Jul29 July 07:20

  Whatever your feelings on McCluskey, you have to say that he is largely correct. BA’s Fire and Rehire policy is beyond the pale. It’s one thing to say that you don’t need the staff because of the economic conditions which prevail. It’s another to then propose to rehire those same employees on vastly inferior terms and conditions.

• Martin says:

  29 Jul29 July 07:32

  When I board a long haul BA plane, I always hope for a legacy crew. They are professional, confident and know their job. I agree the BA business or Club product is probably one of the worst in the skies. At least the legacy crews can serve drinks, a meal and get the lights off quickly. It is far better than being served by slow bewildered crew, who think flying means to smile insincerely and have no sense of urgency until it’s their sleep break. One solution may be to have legacy crews run the BA’s First and Club cabins, where their more comprehensive training and experience can resuscitate their premium products .

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