Just yesterday morning British Airways found itself bracing the company for a lengthy strike by cabin crew. This news came as the talks between the Unite union and British Airways to resolve differences over pay and conditions broke down.

Both sides are reported to have submitted concessions as a midnight deadline approached quickly. However, the talks did fail to ever produce any kind of compromise. Due to this, staff could now walk out as soon as next Friday following the minimum notice period of seven days. Unite members must confirm the strike dates by March 15^th but has already pledged not to hold the strike over the Easter period.

TUC had been hosting the talks between the two parties. The general secretary, Brendan Barber, said that the two sides had been unable to reach a compromise despite a prolonged period of negotiations. Both of the parties will be reflecting on the position, and the TUC will be keeping in touch. Either way, at this stage, there will be no further negotiations, or at least no more are planned at this point.

The British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association has already outlined a plan to strike that could last up to ten days. This decision follows a ballot of 12,000 British Airways staff back in February, where 81 percent of the people that voted in the ballot voted for industrial action.

British Airways and Unite had been in negotiations for months. The airline is seeking to cut its costs by £60 million in an effort to stem huge financial losses. Some of the changes have included cutting the number of cabin crew on long haul flights. This is something that has upset the cabin crew and one of the main things that was talked about in the negotiations.

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Filed under Business & Finance, Travel News, UK News

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 9:41 am and is filed under Business & Finance, Travel News, UK News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.