Since Lord Adonis condemned the planned British Airways strike by Unite members, it's reported Eric Pickles has written to Gordon Brown demanding he condemns the strike and suspends labour's relationship with Unite. Later it was said that the Prime Minister had already personally intervened by calling on Tony Woodley, the joint general secretary of Unite, to discuss potential solutions.
The labour response to Eric Pickles' comments:
A Labour spokesman retorted: "It is sad the Tories are trying to politicise this issue. They don't understand trade unions."
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15 comments:
As a Member of UNITE (although not at BA)I support my union 110%
And if the stirrers from all the political party's and the Blogosphere were to stop trying to whip up lynch Mob.
Some agreement may be reached but that wouldn't suit some peoples agenda would it???
If you would like to read some factual reporting about the BA dispute here is a link
http://www.thedigitalpublisher.co.uk/unitefeb2010
Niko, calm down dear, calm down. Labour love The Unions and their money even more. Money talks. I'm sure some luxury dinners at The Dorchester and at you and your members' expense, will sort it all out!!
Um pot, kettle, black on Labour, I think the Tories understand unions all to well considering they had to pick up the pieces from abuse of union power the last time they came back after a Labour government.
I'm a lynch mob Niko? Jings.
The union knows full well it will destroy BA, it's already happening since the last strikes.
Auch well. I don't support them in this. In fact both sides have fault.
Thanks for the link Niko.
The tories are very quiet on this QM, but that's not surprising.
If workers want to go on strike, I don't see what it's got to do with a fat slob like Eric Pickles.
The right to withdraw your labour is a hard-won right and we discard it at our peril.
To be fair, Eric Pickles would normally support the workers in a dispute with management but he's weighed up the pros and cons of this dispute and decided, reluctantly, to come done on the side of the bosses (!)
This may or may not be relevant.
Considering Labour throughout their tenure in government have done little to support the terms, conditions and wages of the workers; they can hardly claim now to be championing the wage rates and conditions of the BA cabin crews.
Yet, in this pre-election phase with nothing but the haze of austerity to choose between, should Labour manipulate a crises then seemingly force through a solution, it could be marketed as a considerable feather in their cap?
Mr. Mixed-up supports his union 110%.
That just about sums it up. Not only can he not see any of the management's point of view but he supports the Unions 10% more than is actually possible.
What's Eric Pickles' weight got to do with it William? Looking at the 3 labour MPs accused of fraud, they must be all fat slobs in your opinion then.
Eric Pickles has possibly weighed the pros and cons in this case and made a decision. I know folk who have done it too and they'll never fly BA again. Why? There's no reliability.
This BA strike is a stunt to bring Gordon Brown et al to heel. Anyone with a modicum of sense knows that.
RA, ah, you're good enough to put that in type. That's what I first thought - after my initial 'what are unite' doing now question.
Jim, bear with Niko, he likes to be mod-ern.
"What's Eric Pickles' weight got to do with it William?"
I prefer people who like to bang on about 'discipline' and 'self-restraint' to have had some demonstrable experience of it, that's all.
However, let's not be distracted, BA is a private company and any dispute is a private matter between workers and management. Eric Pickles has no interest in the matter, let alone publicly favouring one side over the other and calling for non-BA workers in that union to have their long-standing association with the Labour Party suspended. Moronic.
I'm sure Eric Pickles has read, refuted and disregarded all of this -
"The last thing BA crew want to do is to go on strike. In fact, the crew are preparing to take industrial action as a last resort because they care so much about BA and want the airline to have a future as a premier carrier.
In November 2009, BA imposed changes that cut over 1,000 crew members from flights, cuts that cabin crew believe have been a disaster for the on-board service quality. BA’s European flights have seen 25 per cent reductions in crew numbers and on long-haul flights crew compliments have seen reductions of between 1 and 3.
Unite crew members realise that BA is operating in tough financial conditions. That’s why they offered the airline £62m in savings – the same amount BA has saved by removing cabin crew from flights. Crew were prepared to compromise on crew numbers, take a pay cut, and take cuts in their terms and conditions. But no matter how much the union offered, BA simply refused to accept. Unite believes that all along BA was merely playing lip-service to the negotiating process.
Most of the crew’s local union leaders are either suspended or awaiting disciplinaries. A further 30 union members have been suspended on spurious grounds. Staff are living in fear of who could be next.
BA has threatened to remove the travel concessions from any crew member who goes on strike – this is a particularly vindictive move when around one third of crew use it to commute to work.
Unite and its members did not want this strike. But we have been left with no option because management will not listen.
We are, however, ready to resume talks at any time. Crew are prepared to offer compromise and flexibility.
www.unitetheunion.org/ba"
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