Come fly with me – BA escapes collapse
Willie Walsh said yesterday that the Strike by Cabin Crew which had been agreed by a majority landslide in it’s Union Vote would probably destroy ailing British Airways.
In a High Court decision the Strike was declared illegal and flights will resume as normal….. it has to be asked how long BA will be able to fly high however as it’s pension fund deficit at over £600million is about the same as it’s stock market value. It looks increasingly likely that BA will join Spanish Airline Iberia to rescue it from an uncertain fate. That is, of course if Iberia choose to enter into a deal at all.
The LawyerPronto team was pretty surprised that a strike be proposed which would put thousands of families plans for a happy holiday in tatters – the public clearly did not back the plans and twitter and facebook sites set up by the cabin crews looking for support found that the majority of over 9,000 comments were critical of the strike. One Richard Kirk wrote : “If you strike for 12 days, BA will go under. That’s not my opinion, it’s a fact. The Government won’t bail BA out, they’ll just make Virgin the flag carrier. This isn’t the Seventies, unions are no longer the champions of the people, they’re outdated and incredibly unpopular.” And he was not alone with thousands condemning the proposed action calling it ‘a disgrace’ with many being ‘disgusted’ by the action.
In an earlier blogpost, back in October I mentioned the Royal Mail Strike and how some strikes were now potentially not illegal as Labour Shelved the Criminal Justice Billwhich outlawed this type of joint action. There are however agreements in principle between the government and unions of some ‘essential workers’ such as prison and hospital workers. I am not sure on the technical details of the strike but wonder if it related to such agreements. Anyone have any ideas?
Anyway, my personal feelings lie with the general vote that the call to action was ill-timed and that it was fairly obscure to think that the public might support action which ruins a nice Christmas for thousands, particularly against a gloomy economic backdrop. I’d advise the union finds a lawyer and get some good advice next time.. They could follow this up by taking some advice from Max Clifford.
Ultimately I for one have started to lose that warm fuzzy feeling I used to have about BA – stepping onto the plane at the end of a holiday and hearing the pilots genteel and calming voice was the only saving graces of flying back from a week in the sun. I hope they get their act together and realise that the airline is in big trouble and needs some hard work and public support to get it back on its feet. Save BA!
