United Kingdom - Unite union plans further strikes at BA - May 30, 2010

After returning to work on Saturday, part of British Airways (BA) cabin crew started a next five-day stoppage on Sunday 30 May, after talks between the airline and the Unite union ended without an agreement. A third five-day strike is due to start on 5 June. On Friday 28 May, conciliation service Acas said talks had been adjourned and it would now try to arrange new negotiations. Unite has announced it will call off the industrial action if the airline restores travel concessions to staff who previously went on strike. Unite joint general secretary Derek Simpson said his union was prepared to meet with BA “anytime, anyplace” to negotiate, but was concerned that BA's CEO Willie Walsh was content to let the strikes continue without any attempt to resolve the dispute because he wants to “punish” the workforce.

English: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10188958.stm; http://www.unitetheunion.com/news__events/latest_news/unite_ba_strike_update_-_day.aspx

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.