BA, unofficial strike
Discussion
What dumb asses these union members are. illegal strike, for non related brothers of another company. As BA is stuggling in such a competitive market dont they want to keep their jobs?
Dont they think this may tip the balance and all of them could lose their jobs.
Plenty of firms going belly up. You would think these workers would appreciate their jobs when they have no beef with BA.
The mind boggles..
>> Edited by superlightr on Friday 12th August 09:48
Dont they think this may tip the balance and all of them could lose their jobs.
Plenty of firms going belly up. You would think these workers would appreciate their jobs when they have no beef with BA.
The mind boggles..
>> Edited by superlightr on Friday 12th August 09:48
Any good tips on getting compensation from BA?
Read their website etc but will they pay full expenses plus cancelled flight fare for 2 people - and if so what's the best method of doing it? I would normally just send in a letter and cut and paste it into their online complaints form.
Read their website etc but will they pay full expenses plus cancelled flight fare for 2 people - and if so what's the best method of doing it? I would normally just send in a letter and cut and paste it into their online complaints form.
superlightr said:
What dumb asses these union members are. illegal strike, for non related brothers of another company. As BA is stuggling in such a competitive market dont they want to keep their jobs?
Dont they think this may tip the balance and all of them could lose their jobs.
Plenty of firms going belly up. You would think these workers would appreciate their jobs when they have no beef with BA.
The mind boggles..
>> Edited by superlightr on Friday 12th August 09:48
Listened to the boss of Gate Gourmet get a right grilling on Radio 4 this morning. Sounds like their organisation is in a complete mess.
Depressingly I am supposed to take a flight from Heathrow to Dulles on Sunday. Looking increasingly that it just wont happen! And the funny thing is that I had a choice of carrier.....
BA wont like me saying this, but I doubt that I will be flying with them for some time to come!
Interestingly I spoke to the travel agent. Official line from BA is that the disruption will carry on until 6:00PM. As a result they are not accepting any changes or alterations to flights. Any changes are classified as a voluntary and hence no refunds, no priority bookings and back of the line...... nice and helpful then!!! Gits! In fact the agent thinks that any changes to flights will mean that I will have to pay for two! Booking a flight 2 days in advance will cost a fortune.....
So, I am stuck - not as bad as those people at the airport itself. But at the moment I have no idea if I can fly or not..... great....
BA wont like me saying this, but I doubt that I will be flying with them for some time to come!
Interestingly I spoke to the travel agent. Official line from BA is that the disruption will carry on until 6:00PM. As a result they are not accepting any changes or alterations to flights. Any changes are classified as a voluntary and hence no refunds, no priority bookings and back of the line...... nice and helpful then!!! Gits! In fact the agent thinks that any changes to flights will mean that I will have to pay for two! Booking a flight 2 days in advance will cost a fortune.....
So, I am stuck - not as bad as those people at the airport itself. But at the moment I have no idea if I can fly or not..... great....
It's the international airport that serves Washington DC, although it is well outside the boundries of the District of Columbia. It's called after John Foster Dulles, a US Secretary of State of the 1940s and 50s.
Non-international flights operate out of Reagan National (formerly Washington National) which is much closer to the city. No prizes for guessing who this airport is named after.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Friday 12th August 10:41
Non-international flights operate out of Reagan National (formerly Washington National) which is much closer to the city. No prizes for guessing who this airport is named after.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Friday 12th August 10:41
BA are pretty dumb to have put all their catering eggs in one basket (if you excuse the analogy).
Are Gate Gourmet the remnants of what used to be BA's own in-house catering division?
I wouldn't be surprised that, if this was indeed the case, that BA's exclusive contract with Gate Gourmet might have been negotiated in agreement with Union wishes.
I wonder how many of Gate Gourmet's "employees" are genuinely employed by Gate Gourmet. Often, in these circumastances, they are actually working through agencies.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Friday 12th August 10:48
Are Gate Gourmet the remnants of what used to be BA's own in-house catering division?
I wouldn't be surprised that, if this was indeed the case, that BA's exclusive contract with Gate Gourmet might have been negotiated in agreement with Union wishes.
I wonder how many of Gate Gourmet's "employees" are genuinely employed by Gate Gourmet. Often, in these circumastances, they are actually working through agencies.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Friday 12th August 10:48
T5-R said:
Listened to the boss of Gate Gourmet get a right grilling on Radio 4 this morning. Sounds like their organisation is in a complete mess.
He did didn't he.
But I did like his comment that this was the third August in a row that BA workers had struck, and he wondered what their excuse was going to be next August
Paul
Eric Mc said:
Are Gate Gourmet the remnants of what used to be BA's own in-house catering division?
Gate Gourmet was an extremely succesful daughter of Swissair which got hammered on the Swissair crash, then hocked off to some eastern johnnies who started trading on their good name and putting in slave labour and poor quality foods.... dumb to say the least that BA put all their eggs there!
I have always felt that virtually every aspect of the airline industry operated on the most ridiculously high profit margins. That is why operations like Easyjet and Ryanair have been able to move in and basically pull the nice comfy rug out from underneath all the old style operators. Now we are seeing the financial dripdown effect of reduced margins hitting the airline service industry.
I'm not saying the Easyjet/Ryanair effect is for the best, but it is happening.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Friday 12th August 11:57
I'm not saying the Easyjet/Ryanair effect is for the best, but it is happening.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Friday 12th August 11:57
Nice to see the union bashers are out again.
Think on this....last year, in peak season, the check-in staff walked.
Maybe there is a deep rift betqween the workers and management. It suggests to me that staff are being handled badly.
Workers don't go on strike for no reason. These are hourly paid staff only marginally above minimum wage. Take home (before any weighting) will probably be £240 ish. Mouths to feed and mortgages to pay. Strike pay (for official action) is based on the idea of fending off starvation. Wildcat = £0 take home - with no savings to fall back on.
BTW I work @ Manchester airport and my company has the BA contract. Manning levels have been squeezed to the limit and their in house staff are being cut. Tensions are high and morale is low. From what I see I wouldn't take any shares in BA.
Think on this....last year, in peak season, the check-in staff walked.
Maybe there is a deep rift betqween the workers and management. It suggests to me that staff are being handled badly.
Workers don't go on strike for no reason. These are hourly paid staff only marginally above minimum wage. Take home (before any weighting) will probably be £240 ish. Mouths to feed and mortgages to pay. Strike pay (for official action) is based on the idea of fending off starvation. Wildcat = £0 take home - with no savings to fall back on.
BTW I work @ Manchester airport and my company has the BA contract. Manning levels have been squeezed to the limit and their in house staff are being cut. Tensions are high and morale is low. From what I see I wouldn't take any shares in BA.
planetdave said:Labour seem pretty happy about telling us how low unemployment is, so surely if these people don't like it they could leave and get a job elsewhere.
Nice to see the union bashers are out again.
However, what really gets my goat is that people doing a different job from a different company are striking. Why? My personal view is that striking is a rather silly thing in most cases because you're simply making things worse for yourself by harming the company for whom you work. Counter-intuitive if you ask me.
planetdave said:
Manning levels have been squeezed to the limit and their in house staff are being cut. Tensions are high and morale is low. From what I see I wouldn't take any shares in BA.
If they dont like the job why dont they quit. Then BA will be forced to improve pay/conditions to keep staff. Going on strike should be for issues like 3 people died last week using this machine get it fixed. Not I dont like it here I have to work too hard.
Although BA was privatised many years ago now, it had been a highly unionised nationalised airline for decades (50 plus year if you include its predecessor airlines, BOAC, BEA, Cambrian, Northeast etc etc). Despite privatisation, it has remained highly unionised in an era where unionised staff are becoming a rarity. Therefore, it has struggled desparaely over the last 18 years to break down all the old union demanded restricted practices and work demarcation issues that once hamstrung its operations. Naturally, the unions involved have not liked this one little bit and have fought tooth and nail to prevent the freeing up of work practices in the airline during this time.
Consequently, there is a long record of antagonism between BA and its management. Every so often (e.g, every August), the BA unions seem to find some pretence to trigger a strike.
The dispute at Gate Gourmet has nothing to do with BA or how it treats its own staff and the unofficial action taken by the union is downright illegal.
Funny how there has been no government comment on this situation at all today.
Consequently, there is a long record of antagonism between BA and its management. Every so often (e.g, every August), the BA unions seem to find some pretence to trigger a strike.
The dispute at Gate Gourmet has nothing to do with BA or how it treats its own staff and the unofficial action taken by the union is downright illegal.
Funny how there has been no government comment on this situation at all today.
Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff