Re: BA Strike
 

The point I am making is that the Daily Mail is a paper - if you want to read it you have a choice. If you choice to read it you can form your own opinion regarding its content. It is hardly persecution because they don't like what the Mail is saying; if they believe it is untrue they could always sue the Mail. In contrast people who are really persecuted rarely can take such a course of direct action against their persecutors.

Re: BA Strike
 

I remember when I was a Prison Officer. Each year our employer (the Home Office) would offer a pay rise say, 3%. The Prison Officers' Association would get it down to 1.5% in no time at all.

If BA are paying their cabin crew more than other airlines (I have idea whether they do or not) and if BA have decided that, to remain competitive, they need to lower salaries, then pushing against such a tide is likely to result in dire consequences, with the company going to the wall and the cabin crew having to look to being employed with the competition, on lower wages than they have at BA, in any event. So what, exactly, have they gained?

All other things being equal, would you be prepared to pay higher ticket prices just so BA's cabin crew can keep their current conditions, or would you go with their cheaper competitor? From other posts you have made, over and over again, I suspect I know what your honest answer would be:p

Re: BA Strike
 

Have you travelled by TTC lately? :)

Re: BA Strike
 

I think you underestimate the effect of the publication of such items as referred to here. To demonise people like that big colourful Mail thing did (and more) will stir up some very strong feelings. It's that which causes further problems just like when things are stirred up against other groups of people.

I used to cover Prison Officers pickets at lunchtimes so they could have a break.:)

I'd pay the no frills price for a no frills airline and leave BA to those wealthy enough to afford it. I'm happy to save money where the more expensive product provides something I don't need.

It's funny...people here are saying how well paid the cabin crew are. Every time there's a thread here about salary levels, the amounts mentioned are far higher than those of the majority of the BA Cabin Crews but they are stated to be barely manageable.

Strange that.:blink:

Re: BA Strike
 

Like the ones that are going bankrupt and leaving people stranded? Unfortunatly lots of people want to dispense with the frills until they travel and have to pay for meals, pay for drinks, pay excess baggage and lower baggage limits, tighter fare restrictions, inconvenient schedules and airports, delays and low paid staff then complain they are not very helpful or rude.

Safety dictates minimum crew levels, cannot cut back there, schedules, cannot cut back there, fuel, maintenance schedules, cannot cut back there, older aircraft, most pax want cheap fares on new aircraft, soon moan if it packs up on the apron and gets delayed, landing fees, have to come down somewhere. Lower landing fees usually mean less convenient airports or at off peak times. Non profitable routes cut and not serviced by any carrier.

Ryanair are no frills, but have had to start increasing fares and charges to stay in business. Gloebsapan is the latest casualty, who were a low cost airline, but take a look at the reviews on them.

Air travel per mile is generally cheaper than driving your car to the store. Assuming a 30c per km cost of running a vehicle, a flight from EGLL to CYVR would be over $2000 each way.

Re: BA Strike
 

And the management are fighting for the COMPANY well being buy bringing forth measures that will allow the company to exist during adverse economic condition.

How many would take a pay freeze or cut during these times to ensure the company they work for remains in business with the ability to employ the majority of current employees? Striking and running a company further into the ground was and is a risk. Principals are meaningless without the ability to pay your bills and feed your family.

Unite are employed for the best interests of the BA staff members and are prepared to fight for the best deal possible. Funny that during the strike the key decision makers and PR voices of the union will still be paid. With over 2 million members on their books, the loss of a few thousand members if BA goes under or is hugely reduced in size won't impact them greatly.

Re: BA Strike
 

I believe that the Mail sells @ £2M copies; the population of UK was £6,138,3000 as at June 2008 - that is approximately 3.3% of the population (assuming that only 1 person reads each paper) or 6.6% (assuming that 2 people read each paper). That means (using the latter) that 93.4% of the population do not read the paper - I think you are over estimating the effect of the paper.

What probably caused more ill feeling was the posting of the video of the outcome of the vote when all these people were seen crying for joy on the TV against the backdrop of people who were going to possibly be stranded due to their actions.

The fact is that the BA Works were deliberately attempting to hurt the hand that feeds at the most busy time of the year (apparently 1.3M passengers fly out of 30M per year) - such a move was likely to cause hardship for the company and clients. They were complaining about staff reductions and pay freezes - well wake up and smell the coffee! This is something that the whole UK is experiencing due to the fall out from the credit crunch and the associated recession that you may have noticed that the UK is in at the moment.

The Union thought that they could strike at the busiest time of the year to get maximum impact and force BA to concede. They failed due to their own inability to carry out the vote correctly - BA saw the loop hole and drove a tank through it. If I was flying with BA over the holidays (which I am not) I would have sent a letter of thanks to Willie Walsh - top man!

Re: BA Strike
 

I presume they're a monopoly? BA is not.

Re: BA Strike
 

Then there are all the forums and blogs that it's posted on and "Hey, did you see that in the paper today...bloody disgrace" etc etc at bus stops, pubs, offices, canteens, classes, factories etc etc

Surely you've seen links from the Mail and other papers all over the net?

There's one on here and the thread has been viewed over 2000 times; most of them since it was posted.

Now not every person who read it in the Mail has managed to put it front of 2000 people...on the other hand this is a rather specialised forum with fewer potential viewers than many other sites. There are Newspaper reviews on the radio and TV, free copies in libraries that get looked at, other people routinely look at newspaper websites.....

Something in one paper reaches far more than just the paper's readership. You really ought to know that.

Re: BA Strike
 

Well maybe they felt that 900 out of 13,800 (that's quite a chunk) losing their livelihoods was the sacrifice that was to help the company.

But that wouldn't be in the Mail would it?:rolleyes:

Re: BA Strike
 

I'm still trying to figure out what you're actually complaining about: are you referring to the scan posted earlier in this thread? If so, what's wrong with it other than the misleading hours number?

Or are you referring to a different Daily Mail article?

Re: BA Strike
 

The cabin crew reductions were voluntary redundancies, weren't they?

Re: BA Strike
 

Actually no! Probably because the strike wasn't going to affect me anyway, so I wasn't looking for it.

Viewed over 2,000 times by probably 100 people at most on this forum. When I find a new post has been made I'll come in and read it, but it doesn't mean I'll post a response every time. I figure I've viewed this thread at least 30 times in a 100 posts.

Yours was the 99th post in the thread, the Daily Mail poster was post 51. Where are your figures for how many viewed the thread before post 51, and how many more have viewed it since then? I doubt the poster contributed to much of the difference (if any), and think it more likely that more people bacame aware of the thread as being the main reason.

Post 51 wasn't put in front of 2,000 people though. A thread being viewed 2,000 times is not the same thing.

Re: BA Strike
 

I believe so.

Re: BA Strike
 

Is that true? I thought views was unique views or at least views from unique addresses.