British Airways’ cabin crew are set to take more strike action later this month with plans for a four-day walkout.
Union Unite has announced that members of BA’s “mixed fleet” crew will walk out from 00.01 on Friday, June 16 to 23.59 on Monday, June 19 in an ongoing pay dispute.
The new stoppage by BA cabin crew follows strikes held earlier this year – there have been 26 days of industrial action since the start of the year, according to the union.
Unite said that the new strike had been called “over the airline’s determination to punish previous strikers”.
Howard Beckett, Unite’s assistant general secretary for legal services, said: “It is disappointing that BA is taking such an approach when we are close to bringing this dispute to a conclusion.
“BA is almost alone among the employers this union has dealt with in that they can accept the case for a pay deal but want to punish the very people who made the case.”
BA called the latest strikes "completely unnecessary" and said a deal had already been reached with Unite.
"All British Airways customers will be able to fly to their destinations, despite four further days of threatened industrial action by Mixed Fleet Unite, which represents one of our five cabin crew fleets” said the airline in a statement.
“We had reached a deal on pay, which Unite's national officers agreed was acceptable. We urge Unite to put the pay proposals to a vote of their members."
The airline said it plans to publish “contingency plans” for the four-day strike period in the next few days and urged passengers not to call its contact centres until details of these plans have been published.