Unite fails with injunction against BA

The Unite union that represents 14,000 cabin crew and staff who work for British Airways (BA), have failed in their attempt to stop the carrier from imposing new working regulations on their staff. Unite said they will still ballot their members, but they have reluctantly agreed to work under the new terms until the new court hearing is heard early next year. From the 16th November, long haul flights will be down one member of cabin crew to 14, but BA said this will not affect the contracts of the crew who currently work for airline.

Unite and BA have been deadlocked in talks for around nine months as they have tried to broker a deal which would see both parties mutually agree on cost cutting measures. The carrier has already earlier this brokered a deal to with the pilot’s union about voluntary redundancies and a pay freeze over two-years as well as a drop in expenses. Unite have been fighting on with BA as they believed they stop the loss of staff. The results of the ballot will be around on the 14th December and this could have potentially lead to strike action over the busy Christmas period.

The airline are all set to announce their first half of year figures later today and analysts fear it will not be good for the firm. They are saying that it will be another heavy loss for the British carrier, only the second since the airline was privatised in the 1980s.