BA: 12 days of Christmas strikes

It what could be the worst gift for Christmas travellers, British Airways cabin crew have voted nine to one in favour of holding 12 days of strikes over the Christmas and New Year holiday. Flights could be grounded from 22 December to 2 January - one of the busiest periods of the year for airlines.

As a result of the strike, up to 2 million passengers could see their flights disrupted, changed or even cancelled. The vote comes after a long dispute between the cabin crews' union and BA management, which is intent on cutting costs to ensure its survival. Unions have said they are unhappy about changes to staff contracts and job cuts that they have not been consulted on.

"It goes without saying that we have taken this decision to disrupt passengers and customers over the Christmas period with a heavy heart," said Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of the Unite union, who stressed that the union was keen to continue negotiations and were sorry for inconvenience caused to passengers.

In a statement, the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association, a section of Unite, said, "We are deeply saddened to have reached the point where we must take industrial action to get our voices heard, but feel that we have been left with no other choice."

"We will wait, ready to meet, anytime, anywhere, 24 hours a day, to try to see if we can resolve the dispute."

"Huge over-reaction"

BA were less sorry for the action, laying blame entirely at Unite's door. In a statement, the airline said, "British Airways is extremely disappointed that Unite is planning massive disruption for hundreds of thousands of our customers over the Christmas/New Year holiday period.

"A 12-day strike would be completely unjustified and a huge over-reaction to the modest changes we have announced for cabin crew which are intended to help us recover from record financial losses.

"Unite's cynical decision betrays a total lack of concern for our customers, our business and other employees within British Airways."

Talks fell through at the weekend when BA's chief executive Willie Walsh and leaders of Unite failed to reach an agreement at last-ditch talks.

With BA recording a pre-tax loss of £401m last year and reportedly losing £1.6m a day following a huge downturn in the industry, one wonders if they can afford strike action over the Christmas period. If not, then perhaps talks should be resumed as soon as possible, otherwise the airline could be financially crippled permanently.

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British Airways drops routes to cut costs | British Airways loses £148 million in past three months | Airline pilots protest

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