Waterhorse

Its a simple case of mathematics, or math, for our continental cousins. There are simply not enough of MF to make the effect s of any strike sufficiently damaging to BA's operation. They are simply not numerous enough, there are still too many WW and EF crews around and not enough MF crew. Flights will continue to operate and business will continue to be done. the level of service maybe reduced but flights will still fly.

The economics are also against MF crew, how many of them can afford to lose 16 days pay? They are poorly paid and it is unlikely that they will have sufficient money set aside to support them through 16 days loss of pay. Furthermore, the mandate for the continuance of strike action was, I believe, something in the order of 58/42, perhaps CIHY can furnish us with the correct numbers. If this is correct then those that voted to continue with strike action are significantly diminished from previous ballots and strikes. Some MF crew are not unionised and will have to turn up, some will not support the strike and will not turn up, some will not be able to afford to strike and will turn up. All in all BA have a lot of things in their favour and the union not so many.

i do believe they have good case but I do not now, nor have I ever believed that the timing of this dispute was propitious. The union should have waited till EF, at least, were a distant memory and then they would have had a better chance of making the strike stick.

KARFA

I have a feeling you might be right. I will check through my notes when we had the strikes earlier this year and I should be able to confirm.

tspill

Thanks - that would be great.

I thought that LHR was listed as one of the impacted airports. And maybe DUB as well. Maybe I misread that.

For the list of impacted airports - does this refer to the departure or arrival or both?

BA6501

Both, the crew operate LHR-XXX-LHR.

KARFA

Yes, checked now and DUB was not an MF route during any of the previous strikes this year.

Both, so this affects departures and arrivals on a route to the list of destinations linked to in the wiki of the MF routes.

makin'miles

I said this way upthread, but the union has to make BA hurt if this will work. And that doesn't seem to be working yet.

If the union is in a legal strike position, and on strike dates, is there anything that legally prohibits crew from walking off the job down route?

Were I Unite, I'd instruct staff to just keep working as normal, and then yank just enough MF off a flight down route so as to force a cancellation, and fly them back to LHR using paid tickets on other airlines.

This wouldn't work at big stations, but at those with only one-two flights a day, it could be very effective. The majority of MF would continue to work and get paid, but the union would inflict quite a lot of damage on the airline for relatively little money - and likely have a greater impact than what's been done to date.

Obviously, I wouldn't expect Unite would pull off staff somewhere like Tehran, but in Calgary or Newark or Santiago or Johannesburg, it could be extremely effective.

Jumbodriver

And totally illegal under U.K. law.

Unite would be open to unlimited damages and the individuals would get fired.

And to be frank it wouldn't even be that effective. BA would rebook a relatively small number of disrupted passengers and the aircraft would fly as scheduled to be ready for its next trip at LHR albeit empty.

Only 30% of mixed fleet have actually taken strike action anyway so Unite could never be sure they would force a cancellation as BA crews above minimum complement on long haul.

florens

I appreciate that BA will only communicate their contingency plans a couple of days prior the first day of the strike but I am still a bit worried. They don't mention anything at all on their website (yet). I am not sure whether I should arrange a plan B already or not. I'm currently on BA1394 LHR-MAN on July 1st.

MPH1980

Here's my take - if you have to be on that flight at that time and you're price sensitive - book a plan B now.

If you're not price sensitive - wait until a few days nearer the strike.

If you don't have to be on that exact flight (and just need to get to London that day) - don't worry about it.

Here's mine:

I'm on the first LHR-DUB flight of the day on the 1st, returning on the 2nd, to connect to a later transatlantic.

If they cancel the first flight, put me on the 2nd, I won't have time to B2B to the 2nd flight with the new arrangement at DUB.

If they cancel the 2nd flight and put me on the third - no biggy - just more time in the lounge.

If they cancel the transatlantic (which seems unlikely given past strikes) - then I'll end up re-routed via another hub (last flight of the day).

My gamble - I won't have any history with this flight as I'm travelling on the 1st July - so I can't see what's "normally" been happening.

So I'm going to cancel my plan A and book a new one using Aer Lingus. Scenarios 2 and 3 are both fine. It becomes a problem if Scenario 1 hits and I won't know that until the day. A combination of 2 and 3 could get entertaining - but I'm sure it'd be fine.

florens

Ok, thanks.

I don't *need* to be on that flight, but it would be nice if I could. There are two more flights that day, so even if my rotation is cancelled I suspect that we'll be put on to any later service (although they are on a mid-A321 and A319 currently and look already quite busy - as is ours.

For now I think I'll monitor closely EF to see if my flight gets zeroed out all of a sudden.

NWIFlyer

Whilst it's comparatively easy for me to say, given my next outbound DUB for an (overnight) B2B is 20th July and therefore will almost certainly not be affected by strike action given the notice period required, I would not be unduly concerned even if I happened to be travelling within the strike period - albeit my return could be at risk if a further strike period is announced, which would hardly be an issue.

DUB has many connections to long haul flights on the earlier departures, so BA will want to protect them, and there are plenty of options within the IAG portfolio to get people to either LHR, LGW or LCY if the worst happens. There could conceivably be some consolidation of the services that serve less connecting passengers, but I'd expect the first, second and last (for positioning for the next day's first flight) services of the day to operate as normal as an absolute minimum.

Brighterside

Watching this thread with interest as have NCL-LHR on 29/6 - going to see Adele at Wembley - then 30/6 off to Lisbon until 4/7. Hoping no problems with my return journey but if my flight is cancelled what would my course of action be? I am assuming that we would be rebooked on to a same day service but with a connection through LHR to NCL it does limit our options.

ICPUI

Im flying with BA from CAI to LHR on July 15th (with a QR connection to DPS over DOH). Its a MF Flight but the flight seems pretty full and its the only BA or even OW flight from CAI to LHR. In this case I dont think I need any plan B. Am I right with this thought?

rapidex

Perhaps,but QR is not permitted to fly CAI-DOH at the moment,so you may have a problem there.

ICPUI

I know, I was rerouted from CAI-DOH to CAI-LHR-DOH. I hope I dont need a rerouting again...