Cabin crew urged to reject BA offer
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Your support makes all the difference.British Airways cabin crew are to be urged to reject an offer aimed at ending their long-running dispute over jobs and working practices after talks ended without agreement, it was revealed today.
Unite said it will ballot its 12,000 members on the offer, with a "strong recommendation" to reject, raising the threat of fresh industrial action.
Talks between the airline and the union have been held over the past few weeks following a series of strikes last month which caused travel chaos for the airline's passengers.
Unite said it would not set any fresh strike dates before the ballot result was known, but stressed it remained in dispute with the airline, which has lost tens of millions of pounds in recent weeks because of the industrial action and the grounding of flights due to the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.
The union said BA was insisting on taking "vindictive" disciplinary action against more than 50 union members as a result of the strikes and was refusing to restore travel perks taken away from those who took part in the industrial action.
Officials accused BA of not operating in the spirit of seeking an agreement, adding that the ballot result was expected before next week's General Election.
Tony Woodley, Unite's joint leader, said: "It is disappointing that talks with the company have concluded without producing an agreement we can recommend to cabin crew.
"However the blame for this rests exclusively with an intransigent management which is determined to attack trade unions and persecute its well-supported, lawful strike action.
"This represents a major failure of industrial statesmanship on the company's part."
BA said the cost of the strikes were estimated at between £40 million and £45 million.
The airline put in place contingency plans to minimise disruption, including leasing aircraft and crew from other firms.
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