British, December 14: Airways cabin crew are poised to walk off the job for 12 days over the busy Christmas period in a dispute over job cuts.
More than 92 per cent of the 12,500 crew who took part in a ballot organised by Britain’s biggest trade union Unite voted today in favour of the strike, which will run from December 22 to January 2.
The action could leave hundreds of thousands of passengers around the world stranded unless the airline can come to some sort of agreement to resolve the dispute with union members.
“We will advise British Airways that the strike will begin with a 12-day strike starting from the 22nd of December,” Unite’s assistant general secretary Len McCluskey said.
“We are hoping that the size of this vote will make the company think again – 92.5 per cent of their staff have said what is happening to them at the moment is wrong and they have called for the company to sit down and start treating them with more dignity and respect.
“We have taken this decision to disrupt passengers and customers over the Christmas period with a heavy heart.”
McCluskey said the union hoped BA would return to the negotiating table to try and come up with a resolution to the dispute in the hope the strike could be avoided.
The airline’s cabin crew are concerned about job losses and changes to their work practices, which British Airways insists are essential to its survival.
British Airways, which is merging with Spanish carrier Iberia, recorded a pre-tax loss of STG292 million ($520.78m) for the six months to the end of September.
—Agencies