Australian unions support planned strike by Unite members.
The Australian Transport Workers Union have pledged to support BA staff in the event of a strike this month.
With the UK workers union Unite failing to reach an agreement in talks with BA bosses, strikes are planned to go ahead for three days on the 20th of March and again on the 27th of March. Now Unite have turned to other unions around the world for support.
BA are currently training staff to take over from cabin crew during the strikes and resulting in Unite writing to the transport secretary Lord Adonis to investigate those plans to ensure that the reputation of the UK aviation industry is not damaged by what they say are “under-trained novices” standing in for cabin crew.
Unions in the US, Australia, France, Spain, Germany and Italy have all pledged support for Unite. The Australian Transport Workers Union have this statement on their website: “In the event of a strike taking place, BA management may seek to crew BA aircraft with inexperienced, untrained, and unskilled strike breakers who may not have been through the proper security checks and clearances for international travel.”
“Your TWU is determined to make sure that this does not happen. BA’s use of strike breakers cannot be allowed to put the health and safety of Australian workers and airline passengers at risk.”
A last-ditch attempt to avert a strike is due in a couple of days when the BA chief executive Willie Walsh meets Unite leaders for more talks. However since all previous talks and deals have been rejected, passengers are not holding their breath for a breakthrough in the deadlock between BA and Unite.
Long haul flights from Heathrow to Australia are almost certain to be affected by the planned strikes and with unions across the globe making it difficult for BA to employ strike breakers, there doesn’t appear to be any relief on the horizon for BA’s long suffering passengers.
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