British Airways (BA) pilots have voted emphatically in favour of strikes in a ballot by the British Air Line Pilots Association (Balpa) union, which could mean the first industrial action suffered by the flag carrier in nearly three decades.
In the dispute regarding BA”s recruitment of pilots on lower wages and separate conditions for its new transatlantic subsidiary OpenSkies, 86% voted to strike, with a turnout of 90% - ”We”re happy with that, it”s the best any union”s ever got,” a Balpa spokesman told ABTN.
General Secretary of Balpa - which represents 3,000 of BA's 3,244 pilots ” Jim McAuslan, said pilots feared the airline”s management will use the lower paid OpenSkies pilots as a ”Trojan horse” to force down pay and conditions.
”We have seen it happening around the world,” said McAuslan. ”BA pilots are determined not to let the same thing happen to them and to their families. That is why BALPA has drawn a line in the sand.”
”Pilots are saying loud and clear that they will not tolerate what has happened elsewhere.”
No formalised date has been given for potential action, and Balpa needs to give BA a week”s notice of any strike.
But a spokeswoman for the airline said it hopes the union will talk further, and insisted pilots have nothing to worry about regarding their pay.
”We”re disappointed with the outcome and we”re calling on Balpa to accept our offer to involve the ACAS conciliation service in a bid for a peaceful outcome to the unnecessary dispute,” she said.
”We”ve guaranteed to Balpa that OpenSkies does not represent a threat to the terms and conditions of BA pilots. We”ve offered to make these guarantees part of the industrial agreement with pilots ” we”ve said that during talks with them.”
However, a Balpa spokesman told ABTN: ”They”ve never done it ” we”ve had nothing in writing”, adding - ”We will be discussing with BA the possibility of any conciliation.”
He emphasised this was a ”global issue”, with pilots from Australia and US airlines coming this week to urge BA counterparts to strike ” ”They came because they”ve lost lots of money themselves because they didn”t stop a small subsidiary being set up by their parent company. American Airlines started American Eagle with just six aircraft ” just as BA is with OpenSkies ” and that grew to 300, using cut price pilots, so then other AA pilots were forced to accept a 64% pay cut about four years later.”
And McAuslan emphasised what lay at the heart of the dispute: ”What BA pilots want is to have one pilot community for both the mainline and the OpenSkies subsidiary, with the same professional standards, equal opportunities for pilots to move from mainline to OpenSkies and from OpenSkies to mainline, fair promotion prospects and a safeguarding of BA mainline pilots pay and conditions by the company giving us binding agreements.”
BA”s spokeswoman declined to comment on what impact any walkout might have on the OpenSkies subsidiary if strikes go ahead - ”Let”s wait and see what happens.”