Oh British Airways, you sure do know how to attract attention for all the wrong reasons.
British Airways is now telling pilots that it will fire them all if they cannot quickly reach a new wage reduction agreement.
1,255. Keep that number in mind. Up until Saturday, British Airways had been negotiating to eliminate 1,130 of its 4,300 pilots with BALPA, the union representing BA pilots. Without warning, that number went up to 1,255 on Saturday. Not only were the additional 125 redundancies a surprise, so was the sudden shift in tone on the part of BA.
The problem is not that British Airways needs to slash pilots. That’s a given at this point and even BALPA seems open to it. Rather, it seems that BA has now taken a “my way or the highway” approach. Per Bloomberg, it has told union negotiators to agree to its terms or all pilots will be fired. Only after all pilots are fired, negotiations for a new and far less generous contract will resume.
Whether this is just the first move in a prolonged chess game or a new spin on the madman theory, BA’s hostile new tone is ruffling feathers.
Revenge Is Sweet…
I’m just making an observation, but this seems like deliberately bitter payback for the pilot’s strikes that severely hampered operations last September. You might recall British Airways’ pilots engaged in industrial actions, forcing BA to cancel 2,325 flights. The strike cost British Airways £121 million (~$154 million) and remains a sore subject.
> Read More: British Airways Pilot Explains Why He Is Striking
Pilots and British Airways eventually agreed to an 11.5% pay raise over three years.
What’s Next For British Airways Pilots?
BALPA is unsure of how it will proceed:
“This has seriously undermined our talks, which now hang by a thread. It calls into question whether BA is even capable of conducting industrial relations properly and whether anything they say can be trusted.”
With most flights already grounded, a strike would be of far less limited value than in 2019.
All British Airways Employees May Lose Their Jobs; Flight Attendants Face Huge Pay Cuts
Keep in mind, British Airways has already threatened to fire all staff then rehire some at lower wages. Flight attendants face the largest salary cuts, with some looking at reductions in pay of up to 70% over current levels.
> Read More: British Airways Prepares To Fire All Flight Attendants In Scheme To Slash Wages
> Read More: Why British Airways Cabin Staff Are So Afraid
Optics + The LHR Slot Issue
Threatening to terminate workers during COVID-19 is not a great strategy for winning public support of even friends in Westminster. Already, some MPs have threatened to revisit BA’s generous slot allocations at London Heathrow. The news this weekend may only hasten that day of reckoning.
> Read More: Will UK Confiscate Heathrow Slots From British Airways?
CONCLUSION
You can admire the labor negotiating tactics British Airways is employing, if you wish. It is true that pilots are, in one sense, receiving a taste of their own medicine. But COVID-19 is a very different era than that of record profits in 2019. BA’s actions may be shrewd, but they seem like that of a child who throws a tantrum when he does not get his way. That will not win public support and British Airways must not forget, especially as it continues to fashion itself as the flag carrier of the United Kingdom, that public support is a huge variable and a ticking time bomb (cf. the current civil unrest in the United States).
Now I actually admired U.S. President Ronald Reagan for firing the Air Traffic Controllers in 1981 so it’s not like I’m unabashedly pro-union. And at least on our side of the pond, Reagan’s actions concerning government workers emboldened many private employers to do same thing. The number of strikes dropped from 380 per year in 1970 to just 11 in 2010. Why? Because private employers just fired their workers.
But this is not a case of air traffic controllers failing to do their sworn duty. Nor is a wholly private corporation trying to survive. Instead, British Airways continues to benefit greatly from the corporate socialism of its generous taxpayer loans and London Heathrow slots. As long as it is the beneficiary of such largesse, it should not threaten its workers in a such an unnecessarily hostile manner. This whole matter seems like vengeance for the strikes last September.
image: British Airways
Given the pilot shortage worldwide just prior to Covid this would have been corporate suicide to threaten them like this. Truly amazing how quickly everything changed.
BA could actually pull this off now and there is little anyone can do. Plenty of pilots to go around and they can bring many over from the Commonwealth countries to work…and I bet even some Virgin Atlantic pilots would defect in a second to BA for more stability. The Govt can threaten to pull slots but, in reality, I doubt they will. Heathrow is too expensive for LCC’s and the only ones who will grab them will be foreign carriers.
I recall Herb Kelleher, in his classic style, sitting down in a board room with the Pilots union back in the early 90’s. He got them all laughing right away when he said, “Now, let me start by saying that, in the end, I know damn well you would do this job for nothing if you had to!” Though joking, he was in some ways quite accurate!
Revenge is a bit dramatic but it gets clicks, having said that frankly the pilots brought this on themselves given their past history of slow downs and strikes some peeling back the onion were petty and child like. So maybe your header is on target.
Having said all that your correct things have changed almost overnight in the airline industry, pilot shortage **POOF** flight attendants are plentiful as well. As this all shakes out it will be interesting to see where the good pilots in the world end of working. UPS is hiring, really hiring I know that first hand, They are also buying 767’s
Back to BA it’s amazing one of the world’s best airlines seems to not to able to get out of its own way for the past 10 years or so.
I honestly feel Walsh wants to inflict pain on flight attendants and pilots for the past strikes. This is just speculation, but if you listen to some of his interviews, it’s not unreasonable.
I’ve had moral issues with wanting to try BA – i dont have status and i do not believe paying to select long-haul seats in premium economy cabins or higher if im paying specifically for “premium” – so if they want to act like this i wont reward that behaviour either.
Oh, so extortion for me but not for thee? The union was opportunistic in their strike, why can’t the company? Oh they are being greedy? Well, wasn’t the union?
Unions have long outlived their usefulness. Most everyone else in the world is an at will employee. You freely agree to work at a given rate, and if it no longer works for either side, you can each part ways. That’s what freedom is about. Unions just serve to extort companies and extract above market employee compensation at the expense of prices for the rest of us.
I would refer you to my conclusion section.
One thing to note re: last year’s strikes were that pilots took a pay cut and accepted worse contracts 10 years prior when times weren’t so great. Since that time, profits skyrocket yet pilots were stuck with what they got. The same is true for FAs and ground crew.
As far as LHR slots are concerned, that’s the least BA should worry about. Us Brits are an unforgiving bunch, and as our flag carrier*, we know exactly what they’re up to. Prices have been ridiculous for years, service has worsened under Cruz (not FAs – I mean service as in prices are the same, but now you get to pay for M&S sandwiches on 3+ hour flights), the data breach, and now they’re taking advantage of COVID-19 as payback of their own employees, yet I’m sure they’ll keep charging the same.
Fire everyone Walsh and Cruz – then see how many of your customers bother coming back, never mind how many employees bother to. At this suicidal rate, they won’t need the LHR slots.
*spanish
Thank you, @Kevin, for the most reasoned and sane reply. Amazing the commentary that fails to look at the previous 2-3 years revenues and net income at IAG, instead focusing on union-busting as a path to greatness for all. (Or nutball raging about the definition of flag carrier. Yes, BA is not nationalized. Yes, punters and rabble, and nobles, all consider BA to be some sort of upper crust ride…though not sure why. Dated product, overpriced routes, etc.) No doubt, those commenting are the first to cry about laggard hard and soft product, but boy, don’t pay the pilots or the veteran on-board personnel…only the two at the top deserve the real compensation. And so true, once the costs are driven down, it’s a sure thing that prices will follow. (How many times do we have to read about BA “fuel surcharges” on award flights? If this airline was so awesome, then those costs should be gladly paid by the points churning masses, correct?)
Sidenote…flying the worlds most lucrative route (JFK – LHR) accounts for over 10% of BA/IAG revenues…I wonder about the magnitude of the net income on that route.
If you admire Reagan for his actions in the strike, you might consider reading Joseph McCartin’s book on the matter…it might temper your enthusiasm for the Gipper’s role by offering a more balanced perspective .
In respect of BA: essentially they can do what they like and get away with it. The competition is seriously if not mortally wounded; the public memory is notoriously short ( and purchasing is driven by economic, safety and scheduling considerations rather than by ethical ones). It’s sad but true.
McCartin is hardly a fair an impartial reviewer of Reagan and his actions with the controllers. He is your typical ivy league liberal union sympathizer
Joseph A. McCartin is a professor of history at Georgetown University whose research focuses on labor unions in the United States. He also serves as the executive director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.