The saga continues
Last week I suggested sparing a thought for British Airways buyers, who were watching their cabin crew colleagues wilfully waste wine and washbags in protest at not being allowed to go on strike. This on top of being asked to work for nothing to save the company £140 million.
Now staff relations have taken an odder turn. Chief executive Willie Walsh has told employees with no flying experience that they can volunteer to become cabin crew in three weeks, so they can cover flights if the Unite strike goes ahead in March.
The union is furious, and considers it an attempt to use “scab labour”. On the other hand, it no doubt makes sound business sense to retrain existing staff to cover skills gaps. And I suppose buyers could take the opportunity to keep a closer eye on their stock…
Is this a cynical ploy by BA management to freak out the union, or a sensible redistribution of resources? Either way, it makes you wonder how much more BA can ask of its employees.
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Almost every airline in the world is in trouble. Fresh innovative thinking is required if the traditional carriers are to survive.
Spare a though for the customer, including Travel Buyers.
This self inflicted reputation destruction by BA and Unions will obviously force more Travel buyers to look elsewhere at other carriers. These buyers have a duty to their companies to ensure the money they spend in this area deliverers the required service and not the constant uncertainty and threat of disrupted travel from both sides of this arguement.
I do not buy travel professionally but personally have not seen BA as the airline of choice for several years and I used to carry a BA Silver loyalty card at one point.
Are BA and the Unions in some kind of competition to see who can be the most disruptive? Maybe BA should be allowed to dissapear to let a phoenix arise from the ashes.