The Unite union insisted the vast majority of its 12,000 cabin crew members were supporting the strike on its first day.
But BA said more than half of staff had come into work at its main hub at London's Heathrow airport and at Gatwick outside the capital, and as a result it was reinstating some short and long-haul flights over the next few days.
A Unite Union banner is hung next to a picket line by British Airways cabin crew members near the entrance to Gatwick Airport. British Airways cabin crew on Saturday began a three-day strike over pay and conditions which will ground hundreds of flights, but the airline said many of its passengers were able to fly.
Members of Unite, Britain's biggest trade union, walked out at midnight Friday after talks with BA chief executive Willie Walsh broke down in acrimony.
More than 1,000 flights were set to be cancelled in the first phase of the action, with a second walkout to follow for four days from March 27, targeting the busy Easter holiday period.
Reports said the expected chaos at BA's hubs at Heathrow and Gatwick had failed to materialise because the airline had made contingency plans for passengers.
BA initially said a total of 1,100 flights out of the approximately 1,950 scheduled to operate during the first strike will be cancelled.
The airline had confidently stated it would keep two-thirds of its passengers flying, using staff who are not striking and by offering travellers seats on 22 planes leased from other European airlines.
And the decision of many staff to report for work was helping to clear the backlog, the airline said.
"Cabin crew are continuing to report as normal at Gatwick and the numbers reporting at Heathrow are above the levels we needed to operate our published schedule," a BA spokeswoman said.
"At Heathrow, around 50 percent of cabin crew have reported as normal and we are therefore increasing the number of long-haul and short-haul flights in our schedule in the days ahead."
However, Unite claimed a number of planes were starting to 'stack up' on the ground at airports, with 85 parked planes at Heathrow alone.
Unite's joint leader Tony Woodley on Friday angrily accused BA of wanting "to go to war" after the talks broke down.
BA chief Walsh said the strike was "deeply regrettable" but defiantly promised passengers that many would be able to travel.
Walsh has dismissed concerns that unions in France and Germany would carry out action in sympathy with Unite.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has condemned the strike, saying it was "in no-one's interest" and would cause "unacceptable inconvenience" to passengers.
He urged BA management and workers to hold fresh talks as soon as possible.
The main opposition Conservatives have accused the government of a weak response to the strike because Unite is a major donor to Brown's ruling Labour party.
Commentators, noting that railway signal workers also voted Friday to strike in the coming weeks, said the action could severely damage Brown ahead of an election expected on May 6.
BA cabin crew on some routes are paid almost twice as much as staff at their rivals Virgin.
The airline is attempting to revise working conditions as part of a cost-cutting push, which the union says will lead to the introduction of a "second tier workforce on poorer pay and conditions".
BA has warned staff taking part in the strike they will lose lucrative reductions on long-haul flights.
The airline, which is attempting to merge with Spanish rival Iberia, said last month it expected to notch up a record loss in the current financial year due to weak demand for air travel.
It made a better than expected pre-tax loss of 50 million pounds (57 million euros, 79 million dollars) in the last three months of 2009.
In December, BA won a legal battle to prevent a 12-day strike by cabin crew over Christmas and New Year after a judge ruled that a ballot of staff by Unite was invalid.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment