Union still ready to hold talks
The Unite union is to go ahead with a ballot of 14,000 British Airways' cabin crew on strike action.
Its joint general secretary Derek Simpson said he was still prepared to hold talks with the airline over its plans for redundancies and changes in working practices.
The carrier, which has been in talks with Unite and a second union, the GMB for several months, said it was disappointed by the union's decision.
Mr Simpson said in a statement: "BA management's determination to impose unacceptable contractual changes on cabin crew leaves us no alternative.
"Negotiation, not imposition, is the only proper way to conduct industrial relations."
The union said the BA plans would involve significant contractual changes for remaining employees and introduce "a second tier workforce on poorer pay and conditions".
The union move comes after the airline said it planned to make the equivalent of 1,700 staff redundant.
It said 1,000 cabin crew wished to leave while a further 3,000 wanted to work part time.
But the union said the redundancies involved changes in working practices which had not been agreed.
Mr Simpson and Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary, of Unite which has 28,000 members at the airline, met BA ceo Willie Walsh earlier this month.
The airline described the talks as "open and frank" but Mr Simpson warned that unless progress was made a strike ballot would be "inevitable".
BA said it was disappointed by the decision to hold a ballot, but stressed the changes to staff contracts will go ahead as planned from November 16.
The cuts to the number of cabin crew on each plane have allowed the airline to accept a large number of requests for voluntary redundancy, part-time contracts and staff transfers between different parts of the business, it said.
"We have put together a package of changes, which despite the unprecedented financial circumstances facing the company, not only protects current cabin crew but also offers many new benefits," the airline said in a statement.
"We have made it clear that there will be no change to the individual terms and conditions of our current crew. They will not take a pay cut. In fact some 75 percent of crew will receive a pay scale increase worth between two and seven per cent this year and again next year."
The airline's proposed new salaries for new cabin crew recruits will be ahead of the market rate, it added.
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