Union managers have undermined cabin crew and boosted BA's

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Union managers have undermined cabin crew and boosted BA’s hand

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It was supposed to have been a winter of discontent. What we have is a summer of discomfort for British Airways passengers as the one rumbling dispute of the past six months explodes into a head-on clash that threatens to define industrial relations in the first weeks of the post-Labour economy.

What is at issue at BA is no longer about cuts in cabin crew to enable the airline to withstand two years of losses of more than £900 million. It is not even about individual travel perks. Nor is it about breaking the union. It is about breaking the management of Bassa, the sub-branch of the union at the heart of the dispute, representing 10,000 stewards and stewardesses.

Bassa’s leadership has forced Tony Woodley, the general secretary of Unite, the parent union, into a negotiating stance that he is struggling to justify. That is a weakness at the head of a super-union whose shortcomings are magnified by having two ageing general secretaries close to retirement. And that weakness is Willie Walsh’s strongest hand and one that has led a previously uncertain BA chief executive into a hardline stance of no surrender.

It could all be so different. The other significant industrial dispute of recent months was the Communications Workers Union walkouts at the Royal Mail. In the case of the posties, both sides agreed to park their apparently irreconciliable differences with an arbiter, Roger Poole.

The former civil servant delivered an agreement four months later of pay rises at or around inflation and lump sums of no more than £1,400 to ditch arcane practices and usher in a new era of modernisation.

Adam Crozier, the Royal Mail chief executive, and Billy Hayes, the CWU general secretary, both hailed a victory for commonsense.

Sadly such a 21st century response to decades of confrontation would be seen by Bassa and BA as a sign of weakness. The public sector disputes that are surely coming this year will need more Crozier-Hayes entente and less Walsh-Woodley stand-off.

[DirtyHarry]

The "Crozier-Hayes entente" has in all likelihood finished the CWU as an effective, protective, counterweight to arcane backward management in Royal Mail.
The CWU has entered into a partnership with Royal Mail's throwback management, this will not be to the benefit of the front-line worker, the real grafters who generate the huge profits Royal Mail makes.
Maybe, just maybe, this is why the business Times online is such a big fan of the "Crozier-Hayes entente."

[BELIAL]

Anyone spot a pattern? Fat cat attack on terms and conditions / strike ballot /HQ cock up / strikes suspended / endless secret talks / strike ballot/Hq cock up/strikes suspended / secret talks at ACAS / HQ willing to accept the original offer that first provoked a strike ballot.
Ring any bells anyone?
End result workforce worse off, profits up, and union bosses nice and cosy

[DirtyHarry]

Anyone spot a pattern? Fat cat attack on terms and conditions / strike ballot /HQ cock up / strikes suspended / endless secret talks / strike ballot/Hq cock up/strikes suspended / secret talks at ACAS / HQ willing to accept the original offer that first provoked a strike ballot.
Ring any bells anyone?
End result workforce worse off, profits up, and union bosses nice and cosy

It's so like our striking fiasco's, it's uncanny. BA's workers are being led up the garden path by UNITE.
Obviously, the way the CWU combined with RM management to stitch-up postal workers, is to become a blueprint for all tyrants and shysters to follow.