Labor Pains For British Airways – US-FOREX.US
When the dispute between British Airways and its staff to cut jobs and salaries was passed to ACAS on Wednesday, fears of another summer of strike action cast a shadow over thousands of holiday plans. But the airline’s problems with striking staff are nothing new. They began in July 2003, when an unofficial strike over a new clocking system caused massive disruption and left 80,000 unable to fly.Problems rose again in August 2005, when another 70,000 passengers were stranded after many of BA’s ground staff allied themselves with the dismissed ‘Gate Gourmet’ catering workers, and went on another unofficial strike. The action left 100 flights grounded, and thousands sleeping in departure lounges. Then in August 2007, a strike was narrowly avoided over a 2.1 billion pound pension deficit.Such disputes are, in one way, business as usual for many carriers. Airline employees are in a position of considerable power because strike action can halt an airline’s functioning entirely. But BA’s fractious relationship with its staff seems to be rooted in the company’s background a state-owned carrier. “BA’s culture of ‘us versus them’ goes back to the pre nationalization days,” said Doug McVitie, Managing Director of Arran Aerospace. “The company and the unions have always been at loggerheads. The company isn’t badly run-it’s just had a long history.”
What can be done to ease the tensions between BA’s managers and staff, and get them working together again? Tom Smith, occupational psychologist at consultancy Lane4, believes the management must set about rebuilding trust in their staff. “Leaders need to start talking about their companies at a more personal level. They need to talk about what is happening and how to resolve it, and that will go some way towards rebuilding trust.”
Recent tough measures taken by British Airways
, such as unpaid leave and job cuts, may well designed to get employees to recognize the scale of the issue, and for managers to take some of their power back. The airline employs 40,000 people but is looking to cut 2,000 flight attendants and 1,500 ground workers. Last month Chief Executive Willie Walsh called on employees to work for free for a month, and around 7,000 staff agreed to take some amount of unpaid leave, work part time or work unpaid. BA has suffered badly from rising fuel costs and the plummeting demand for business travel, as hard up travelers switched to lower cost airlines like Easyjet
and Ryanair
. In May it announced a 220 million pound annual operating loss. Now as it reigns in its costs, the carrier is waiting and hoping for the premium market to stabilize. If it doesn’t, the airline might have to consider alliances with other companies. “BA cannot be the leading British airline and be an international player,” said McVitie. “It needs to swallow its identity into a bigger whole. BA will not be a standalone airline five years from today.”