Alex Cruz responds to BA critics
 

I think the topic title is the best synopsis of the piece. There has been some criticism (rightly or wrongly) on here about Cruz’s apparent shying away from responsibilities, here’s the chap’s own words on the matter:

Source: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...mpression=true

Feel this one could get a bit fruity but I did smile when he accused others of "attacking our brand". Still comes across as disingenuous and probably shouldn't have bothered.

Interesting he should mention Unite and GMB not attending the meetings.

A pilot was responding to a cabin crew member on another online forum a week or so ago, basically saying that the pilots union was engaging with BA, while the unions representing cabin crew were not. He was essentially saying "your union is not doing their job".

Just interesting to see it confirmed.

A lot of what Cruz says comes across as disingenuous. For example:I have no doubt they have, but have they been paying enough?

It's been confirmed here for the last few weeks! Although the thread has now been locked.

Mediocre, defensive, utterly non-inspirational (if that's a word). One thing is for sure: Cruz is consistently on brand here.

Bearing in mind the piece was responding to critics, what do you think he should have said?

At the risk of "over engaging", some points I picked up were:

"​In May this year, we flew 485 passenger flights. Last year, on the first day of May, we had flown that number of flights by lunchtime"

"Unite and GMB have said publicly they will only meet us if we withdraw the Section 188 notices that set out our redundancy proposals. For the record, if a UK company proposes redundancies it must follow the law, inform the unions that jobs are at risk and provide any and all information to make the consultation meaningful".

"We will continue to show up for union meetings and hope they stop scaremongering and attacking our brand and start doing what their members pay them for, namely representing them as they deserve"

He could've owned up to something, described a vision, offered a way forward. Instead it's moan moan moan, somebody else's fault, stop deriding us, you're being mean. I mean, look at Ed Bastian, read what he writes, his talks. Or any other "leader" in most fields. Alex completely lacks any emotional aspect in his rhetoric; even if one could wipe away the Olympic-sized pool of bad blood in which he's swimming he still can't get people to rally behind him. I don't mean to say he's got an easy job or that I could do it, not at all; he's got a hard job and I would be pathetic at it. But no one has forced him to take it.

Maybe he'd read the original 'TP reduction requirement thread' (now closed) on here! :D

“....This is a challenge not of our making, nor one we could ever have conceived....”

It was conceivable.

It's all corporate speak anyway. Same as someone apologising by saying "I'm sorry...you feel that way".

Delta among other competing airlines not only conceived it, Delta has maintained and updated a pandemic playbook since SARS in the early 2000s. (The way competent governments maintain and evolve nuclear war survival plans.) There are logistics-heavy companies in the US, such as food distributors, that were conferring with analogous companies in Wuhan and gaming out a pandemic response back in December 2019, while our governments were still claiming there was nothing to worry about.

The whinge from companies that have responded poorly to this thing that "nobody could have foreseen this coming!" is unbecoming at best. Many could; you chose not to.

again and again he is one of the most ineloquent leaders i've ever heard/seen on tv or in print...and this article shows it again.

his message and delivery both lack any type of nuance let alone ability to sell or set forth a future for BA. i dont understand why BA PR would move forward with this, get a better ghost writer!

The ghost writer is the guy who closed down the internal social network used to communicate so...