British Airways Chief Will Meet With Unite Boss Before Strike

New reports are now coming in showing that the chief executive of British Airways, Willie Walsh, will be meeting with Tony Woodley, the Unite joint leader. Apparently this meeting is suppose to come before the proposed strike that will be taking place on Saturday.

This meeting will be the first direct contact between the two leaders. British Airways has been in negotiations with the Unite union through the auspices of the Trade Union Council. However, Mr Walsh has now decided to meet directly with Unite in his last effort to avoid the strike.

The news of this meeting comes just after the Unite union announced its attempt to make the strike a national headline. The union, which currently represents about 12,000 cabin crew at the airline, will call workers out on strike for three days on March 20^th. Another strike has already been planned as well for March 27^th. However, the second strike action will be a four day strike.

The choice to strike has been extremely unpopular in Great Britain. However, the movement seems to be gaining support elsewhere around the world. In the United States, Teamsters, which is the largest workers union in the country, has offered its support. The leader of Teamsters, James Hoffa, even suggested that flights in the United States could be disrupted as well. He said whatever they have to do, they will do it. However, very strict labor laws in the United States could call into question any action the union might take.

Recently British Airways has been coming up with a contingency plan in case the strike does go through. The airline noted that, right now, they should be able to fly about 65 percent of their flights despite the strike.