Unite Union Looks to end British Airways Dispute

Apparently, just recently, the Unite union has moved to present a number of alternative cost cutting proposals to British Airways. This is the union’s next step in trying to prevent a strike action against the airline. The British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association, which is a branch of Unite, has been meeting with British Airways representatives in London in an attempt to negotiate savings of at least £60 million at the airline.

British Airways has implemented a number of changes to working conditions in the past few months. Most of these changes have been in order to attempt to cut costs and stem a huge financial loss. However, these changes, which see the number of cabin crew that is taken on some flights cut, has proved to be unacceptable to staff. Thus, the staff has voted to strike in order to get British Airways to change their minds about the changes.

British Airways was given the weekend to go over the new proposal by the Unite union. Talks with the union are to start back up today. It is unclear right now if British Airways will except the proposal. However, a lot of experts are thinking that British Airway is pretty set in their ways and will not take Unite union up on their offer.

This branch of Unite represents a total of 12,000 cabin crew for British Airways. About 81 percent of the people in the union voted in favor of the strike action. This is a pretty overwhelming number, which was expected by airline officials. No set date has been given on when the union may call the strike if the talks fall through.