British Airways passengers face half-term travel chaos after workers vow to strike
BRITISH Airways passengers face school half-term travel agony after workers vowed to strike.
BA’s ground staff voted in a mass meeting for a ballot on industrial action.
The cargo, loading and baggage workforce will now formally vote to shut down the airline.
If the vote is to strike - as expected - BA will struggle to operate flights.
Cabin crew will have separate options for pursuing industrial action, with sources also indicating the half-term school holidays will be targeted for “maximum impact”.
The vote to strike is in protest at the airline’s push to axe 12,000 staff and switch remaining workers on to lower paid contracts.
A worker at the ground staff meeting near Heathrow - said: “Workers want to strike.
“There is absolute disgust at the behaviour of BA.
“There is now a mandate for the union to formally pursue industrial action. Staff will now be balloted and a strike is inevitable.”
The airline has reached agreement with the unions over its engineering and Heathrow customer facing staff.
But the 3,000 strong cargo, loading and baggage section could bring the airline to a shuddering halt - and if cabin crew also strike BA would struggle to operate any flight.
BA told The Sun: “We have received no notification of any ballot for industrial action.”
Union leaders are already legally challenging the selection process by which airline bosses culled its workforce.
And workers remaining with BA are being used not to sign a ‘settlement agreement’ switching them on to reduced terms and pay.
Unite bosses wrote to its bruised members after BA advised which of its 42,000 workforce was ditched.
BA was slammed for leaving “a community decimated by nothing more than greed and indifference, good people who deserved far, far more, simply ushered out of the door”.
The union went on: “A culture and a community literally cut in half. The heart and soul ripped from the airline, with an unseeing haste to get rid of people as fast as they could, unceremoniously disposing of them as cheaply and as quickly as possible.
“Not a single thought was given to whether the people being rushed out of the door, were our best or our worst, it simply didn’t matter.
“Colleagues have been either carelessly tossed aside or so brutalised by the last few months, that many no longer recognise the company they were once proud to say they worked for.
“British Airways’ entire strategy seems to amount to little more than waging a war against its own employees, in the mistaken belief that this entirely negative tactic will somehow deliver success.”
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BA’s bid to give 12,000 staff the boot was achieved with some staff choosing voluntary redundancy rather than the axe.
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The airline has been lambasted by cross-party MPs and celebrities for binning 12,000 staff.
But the airline insists it is in a “battle for survival” and losing £20million a day.
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