Virgin pilots strike vote
17.05.11
Virgin Atlantic pilots are to be balloted over strike action after year-long pay talks broke down. The ballot will take four weeks to carry out, starting on 24 May, and could result in their first ever strikes over the busy summer holiday period.
The pilots' union BALPA, which represents over 85 percent of Virgin's 750 pilots, says its members have accepted a pay freeze since 2008 to help the company during the recession. Jim McAuslan, general secretary of BALPA, said: ‘Virgin's pilots feel very angry and disappointed at the way they are being treated. During the tough years, pilots have made sacrifices to help the business on the basis that fair pay would return, but that hasn't proved to be the case.'
He said his members had been offered rises of 4% in 2012 and 3% in 2013, which he said fell short of the current 5% inflation rate. The union feels that Virgin pilots deserve a bigger pay rise to make up for the years of no increases. Mr McAuslan said: ‘The company is asking us to effectively sign up to five years of cuts in pay. We do not want a strike and have tried every way to avoid it but are resolute in our aim of fairness.'
The airline said in a statement that it had made a ‘fair, affordable and sustainable offer that is in line with the rest of the industry’. The spokesman added that it remained open to dialogue.
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