Cabin crew at British Airways extend strike into August holiday peak season

LONDON, U.K. - Despite months of industrial action, British Airways has not been able to resolve the long drawn pay dispute with its cabin crew staff.

Now, the striking staff have announced a further two weeks of action for the first half of August in the pay dispute battle and sanctions at the airline.

The strike will now extend from 19 July to 15 August.

The new strike action follows the latest 14-day British Airways walkout over pay.

The crew in the lower-paid mixed fleet working out of Heathrow started the latest 14-day walkout on July 19, which was their 46th day on strike since January.

This now means that a month of strikes will take place during the summer holiday peak.

The airline has stated that it has so far flown every booked passenger to their destination during the strikes through merging departures, leasing planes and crew from outside, and rebooking onto other airlines. 

The mixed fleet crew represent about one-third of the airline’s total cabin staff, and around 60 percent of them are in the Unite union.

Commenting on the announcement, a British Airways spokesman said, “As during Unite’s previous industrial action, we will ensure all our customers reach their destinations. Instead of calling further completely unnecessary strikes, Unite should allow its members a vote on the pay deal we reached two months ago.”

According to Unite, the extended action will soon leave the airline unable to fill holes in rosters as non-striking crew, that includes some drafted in from other departments, will reach a legal maximum on flying hours.

According to British Airways, the dispute started over pay for cabin crew, which starts at 12,100 pounds in basic salary, it is however pushed above 21,000 pounds with bonuses and allowances.

The figure was however disputed by Unite, which has argued that many crew members make around 16,000 pounds.

A potential deal was earlier rebuffed because of sanctions against crew who had been involved in strikes, including the loss of bonuses and travel perks. 

Further, the staff has been further infuriated after the airline explicitly paid non-striking crew 250 pounds drawn from money saved on crew bonuses.

British Airways has argued the cabin crew were warned of the consequences, including loss of benefits, before they went on strike to encourage then to come to work. 

It has also offered a 7 percent pay deal over three years.

Unite’s national officer, Oliver Richardson, said in a statement, “Attempts by British Airways to bribe cabin crew into not striking with a 250 pounds bung represents a crude attempt to sow division and will ultimately fail. Such actions will only serve to deepen the resolve of our members and the support they are receiving from the public and politicians. Covering cabin crew are perilously close to their legal flying times and could ultimately be pushed over the number of hours they allowed to fly in the next 28 days.”

Unite has also launched legal action against the government.

It said it breached European regulations in allowing British Airways to lease nine aircraft and cabin crew from Qatar Airways – a 20 percent shareholder in the airline’s parent company, IAG.