Transport minister calls BA strike ‘totally unjustified’
15.03.10
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis has attacked the planned strike by British Airways cabin crew staff, calling it ‘totally unjustified’. He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that the strike posed a threat ‘to the future of one of our great companies in this country’. The Unite union said Lord Adonis ‘appears badly informed’.
Lord Adonis said: ‘Let's be absolutely clear the stakes are incredibly high in this strike and I absolutely deplore the strike. It is not only the damage it's going to do to passengers and the inconvenience it's going to cause - which is quite disproportionate to the issues at stake - but also the threat it poses to the future of one of our great companies in this country. It's totally unjustified, this strike, on the merits of the issues at stake, and I do call on the union to engage constructively with the company.’
The strike starts on 20 March and is due to last for three days, with a second four-day walkout due to begin on 27 March. A spokesman for Unite said it and the cabin crew staff ‘want to avoid strike action’, and that it ‘is always ready to negotiate’. He also called on Lord Adonis to publicly pressure BA to ‘put back on the table’ the settlement offer it made last week.
The offer included commitments on working hours and annual pay rises in exchange for the cabin crew workers agreeing to the BA's planned £62.5m of cost cuts. It was withdrawn by BA on Friday after the airline said it was conditional on strike action being averted and that more cost savings would be required because of the strikes.
BA backed Lord Adonis's comments, calling the strike ‘disproportionate’. A spokesperson said although the company was facing two years of record financial losses, ‘unlike other businesses, we have avoided compulsory redundancies. Cabin crew face no pay cut or reduction in terms and conditions - and remain the best rewarded in the UK airline industry.’
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