lorcancoyle

Any view on whether BA will offer changes to move flights outside possible strike period? Couldn't see anything in wiki.

I have a booking for DUB in the strike period, and for other reasons would like to move a week earlier - but no award availability. Can cancel for free anyway, but musing on whether I might luck out now...

KARFA

Is your flight on a MF route though?

BostonRobin

Perhaps you're a good person to ask then: what does "mixed fleet" mean? Is it a Union term, in which not all workers are unionized? I can't find the answer and I am curious as to the impact of this action on my upcoming flights, which fall within this window!

Can I help you

Not surprised that they have called a strike, the offer for more talks was obviously just a stalling tactic and they never intended to negotiate.
Good luck MF crew.

Update From Your Representatives At ACAS - 14th June 2017


Further to the email sent to you from the Head of IFCE last night, some of your Mixed Fleet Unite reps attended discussions under the auspices of the conciliation service ACAS this morning. As communicated to you earlier in the week, we have always been committed to try and keep you updated wherever we can.

Your reps turned up in good faith to try to present a genuine compromise to this dispute. British Airways chose to send a select group of colleagues from their legal team, rather than also sending any delegates from IFCE management. This has been disappointing at this juncture in time, as having more management here would have allowed us to have more genuine discussions to move this process forward. We also would have been able to clearly reiterate to the Head of IFCE that contrary to last night’s email, we are not in a position to simply ballot on pay, as for us pay and sanctions are indistinguishable. Your union would not present a pay deal that separates sanctions for those who have taken legal industrial action.

We asked their legal team to show us their position and in turn, we presented our final position. We engaged in discussions in good faith, as we know how much our members want us to genuinely resolve this. We have made it very clear to British Airways that although we reasonably don’t expect things to be resolved in one morning, there is a strength of feeling amongst our membership and there is a lot of anger out there.

Our members genuinely want a resolution to this, which your reps have shared with the company. Our position is that unless the company are prepared to meet our final position, then we will continue to be in an industrial dispute with British Airways. This has ramifications both publically and politically.

Your reps have shared the frustrations of our members and we hope that the management genuinely reflects on this. We have also made it loud and clear that we have done enough to try and do a deal and that if more strike dates need to be announced that these will categorically not be taken off of the table for talks to take place, as this is the will of our members. We are always prepared to attend ACAS but not at the expense of our members' time or patience.

It has been left this afternoon that lines of communication are open to the company from both your Mixed Fleet Unite representatives and also the Assistant General Secretary of Unite the Union and that as per our members’ meeting last week, our deadline to genuinely resolve this will be Friday.


Failure to do so will result in us asking you to support us in industrial action dates. If we have to ask for this support, please know that we do so having explored absolutely every avenue in good faith to resolve this dispute.

BA6501

It's a group of cabin crew hired since 2010 on "new" contracts who operate a selection of shorthaul and longhaul aircraft, and operate to certain destinations listed here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...et-routes.html

corporate-wage-slave

There are many different crews use by BA, Mixed Fleet (MF) is a LHR based fleet crew, which is the main recruitment route for new cabin crew into the airline at LHR. LGW and LCY have different crews. Some members of MF are unionised, some are not. So if the strikes goes ahead some MF staff will be working, all the other crews will also be working, but many MF will however be on strike, as things stand. You can tell if your flight may be affected by going to the Wiki and seeing the link there to the MF routes. However at this stage, and typically not until a few days before travel, BA won't know or be able to confirm whether your flight will operate. Usually this thread will be updated with more information at that point.

jlsw7

Surely BA management cannot be countenancing allowing massive disruption so soon after the IT problems.

KARFA

Would you describe the disruption during the previous MF strikes as massive? I wouldn't. It was barely noticeable to most passengers.

Can I help you

Feelings have changed within MF crew, expect more support.

NWIFlyer

Although the length of this strike, at a time when it'll probably be harder to wet lease aircraft, is likely to stretch BA's resources and wallets more than previously. At a time when BA has had to pay a large amount of compensation, you'd think they'd want to conserve cash to improve working capital. Having to pay out to keep the network sensibly intact will go very much against that.

From that viewpoint, it's perhaps the cleverest political move so far by Unite.

jlsw7

I wasn't affected and can't remember how others described it. But I think it will be damaging to people's perception of BA's reliability, especially coming so soon after another issue.

pomkiwi

I'm due to fly out to JNB in F on 13/7 and back on 17/7. Its on a 2-4-1 Avios booking. If I was the worrying type there is lots to encourage anxiety there

However I will sit tight and see what develops....

aidy

Im flying for my wedding on the 19th, hopefully there won't be a backlog and all will be ok.

But I hope it goes well for the MF guys, its clear from CIHY's post they have been messed about

travelwithross

Considering the pathetic pay they receive just now I don't imagine many would take 2 weeks off work on strike for a measly 5% (or whatever pay rise). It's counter productive as you'd lose more in those 2 weeks.

Furthermore, considering the disruption during the last strikes has been minimal I think the real question is on MF's colleagues in WW fleet and EF joining them. If not then BA knows they've got the union and the MF workers where they want them - they can just keep hiring new people who are lining up to take the jobs and operate a near normal operation without them by using other airlines and standby crew.

The only winners here are BA.

KARFA

L
I agree it is the unknown this time compared to previous strikes. I have just been through my bookings for the period and it turns out I have no MF routes booked. However I did have some MF routes booked during previous strikes and no impact whatsoever. I also compiled a list of the short haul and domestic cancellations and there were very few in previous strikes.

Even if I had a MF route booked I really wouldn't be worried.