BA urges T&G to withdraw 'unjustified' strike

British Airways cabin crew plan to stage a three-day strike later this month after their union failed to reach an agreement with the U.K.'s largest airline over issues that include sick-leave policies and a new pension proposal from the airline.

Members of the Transport and General Workers (T&G) union will take industrial action on January 29, 30 and 31, and the Union would again call out strike on February 5, 6 and 7 and February 12, 13 and 14 if the dispute is not resolved.

T&G has already notified BA of its intention to call out cabin crew on strike.

The T&G Workers Union, which represents 11,000 or about 80 percent of British Airways cabin crew employees, approved a possible strike by a nearly unanimous vote by its more than 8,000 members (96 percent).

The issue that provoked T&G to call on strike was a new regime introduced 18 months ago by Chief Executive Willie Walsh on sickness pay. In order to save $888 million by March 2008, Walsh planned to reduce sick leaves and cut number of flight attendants on planes as part of his plan, forcing cabin crew to work during their illness.

On the other side, the London based BA insisted it was merely cutting high levels of sickness absence. Though, the average of 22 days had been brought down to 12 but this was still above the UK average of seven per worker per year, it clarified.

Distressed by T&G’s proposed strike, BA said, "We are extremely disappointed that the T&G cabin crew union have walked away from negotiations and issued a direct threat to the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of our customers.''

In a statement on its Web site, British Airways criticized the union’s industrial action, saying it would cause massive disruption for passengers and further damage to the airline, which has been hit in recent months due to the security and weather problems.

Europe's third-biggest airline urged the union to avert its strike threat to help restart negotiations.

However, T&G Deputy General Secretary Jack Dromey said, "Our members are fed up with being bullied into coming to work when sick, and with the divisions caused by poverty levels of new entrant pay scales."

Contrary to BA’s report that the union has refused to talk to the airline, T&G said it is ready to resume talks at any time.

"We want sensible negotiations that solve the immediate problems, but also lead to a fresh start, a new relationship between BA and its work force,'' Dromey said.

Meanwhile, BA said it will allow those people who are due to travel between 29 January and 16 February to change the date of their trip. For the purpose, the British carrier has introduced a policy that enables customers to rebook flights for a different date.

"We remain committed to the search for a peaceful outcome to this dispute and we urge the union to withdraw this totally unjustified strike threat to give negotiations the fullest chance of success,'' BA said.