A ballot of British Airways cabin
crew on resolving their long-running dispute with the airline has been
suspended, Unite has announced.
A vote on strike action now looks
likely after members of the union refused to back a new deal put forward by the
airline.
It had been hoped a breakthrough in
the dispute may be on the horizon following a series of walk-outs by crew since
March.
Unite had been due to ask its
11,000 members whether they wanted to accept a suggested deal, with voting
expected to be held in the coming weeks.
It had been thought the offer would
be recommended for acceptance by union leaders.
But Unite’s joint leader Tony
Woodley said any sense that the deal was being presented to cabin crew over the
heads of “unwilling representatives” would be damaging to the union.
“Under these circumstances I
have suspended the ballot on the offer and will meet with all of our cabin crew
representatives as a matter of urgency to consider the next steps,” he
said.
A strike over Christmas is highly
unlikely since a postal ballot would take at least four weeks and then the
union would be required to give BA a week’s notice.
The dispute began over a year ago,
initially over cost savings.
But the battle intensified as
disciplinary action was taken against cabin crew who went on strike and were
also stripped of their travel concessions.
Unite members have taken 22 days of
strike action earlier this year, costing the airline $241 million and
disrupting travel for passengers.
Under the proposed deal, the union
would have had to drop legal action on behalf of members who have been
disciplined and agree to a period of no industrial action before the travel
concessions were fully restored.
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