Demonstrators prepare to take part in a protest for British Airways’ cabin crew during the first day of a five-day strike at Heathrow Airport, May 24, 2010. (Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)
Reuters | British Airways cabin crews began a five-day strike
Monday after weekend talks on a long-running dispute over wages, job
cuts and working conditions broke down in acrimony.
The airline
said it planned to operate more than 60 percent of long-haul flights and
more than 50 percent of short-haul flights from London’s main Heathrow
Airport, allowing 70 percent of passengers to reach their destinations.
Flights from two other London airports, Gatwick and City, were not affected by the strike. Two more five-day strikes are planned if the dispute cannot be resolved, following stoppages in March.
“Our operations around the world have got off to a good start this morning,” BA said in a statement.
BA said it would be leasing up to eight aircraft with pilots and cabin crews from other British or European airlines to keep passengers on the move.
British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh and leaders of the labour union Unite, which represents the cabin crews, blame each other for a breakdown in communication.
“I made an offer to Willie Walsh yesterday to put back our people’s travel concessions that he’s vindictively and foolishly taken away from them and I would personally call this strike off,” Unite co-leader Tony Woodley told BBC Radio 4 Monday.
The issue of travel allowances for cabin crew has become a major sticking point in the conflict, which comes at a difficult time for BA. The airline last week announced a record full-year loss of $763 million.
Cabin crew strikes in March cost the airline around $60 million, a figure included in the loss posted last week. BA has suffered an additional $150 million hit due to disruption to flights caused by ash from an Icelandic volcano.
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition urged the two parties to resume talks.
“It’s not in the interests of the company, it’s not in the interests of the staff long-term and it’s certainly not in the interests of the travelling public,” Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman told reporters.
The latest round of face-to-face talks between managers and union leaders, on Saturday, came to an ill-tempered halt after protesters from a tiny left-wing group invaded the venue.
It also emerged that Derek Simpson, joint leader of Unite, had been sending real-time updates to the microblogging site Twitter from the confidential talks, angering Walsh.
Undaunted, Simpson tweeted again on Monday. “Tony (Woodley) and I will visit the BA picket lines today … And if BA are minded, we will talk to them,” he wrote.
