British Airways Deadline Comes and Goes with No Deal

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A lot of confusion hit yesterday (July 1) as to whether British Airways’ talks with unions over pay freezes and redundancies would continue after the last time the two groups broke up without an agreement. Two nights ago, the British Airways’ deadline came, and talks stopped right away.

The reports went on to say that the next day after the talks stopped, the airlines did not turn up to continue the talks. There are also talks that the airline is set to ask for third party intervention from ACAS or TUC to help assist in the negotiations. The next day, the airline refused to comment.

Talks that went on at a Heathrow hotel failed to reach an agreement on many key points as well. This means that the threat of a strike is still hanging over head this summer. A strike now could be the straw that breaks the back of this mega giant as the boss of British Airways, Willie Walsh, said that the company is in a fight for survival.

The carrier has already announced pretax losses of £401 million for last year. They company did say that it wanted to do a two year pay freeze and have 3,000 redundancies among its 40,000 plus workforce. It also told unions that it wanted changes to the working conditions.

However, the two main unions Unite, which makes up 28,000 members of the airline, and GMB, which makes up 7,000, say that the airline is asking for way too much. The Unite’s secretary of aviation, Steve Turner, said that they are trying to force through all the things that they have not been able to have in 25 years.

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