BA strike called off

15th December 2009, by Chris Gill

Fly away?

The planned strike by British Airways staff has been declared illegal, and cannot now go ahead.

According to the BBC, High Court judges agreed with BA’s cabin crew union that members had not been correctly balloted on the strike. The airline’s union took the case to court in order to ‘protect customers from the massive stress and disruption’. The outcome has been an injunction to prevent the strike – over pay and job cuts – from taking place; at least for the festive period.

The news will be a relief to travellers going away for the Christmas and New Year holidays, and to the hundreds of tour operators trying to make alternative flight arrangements for their clients. And on BA’s own website the comment was as follows: ‘the threat of a Christmas strike has been lifted by the court. There was never any need for a strike and we hope that Unite (the union) will take this opportunity to reflect before deciding its next steps. We believe the public would want that too.’

A more immediate problem for BA and other airlines on Friday 18 December is flight cancellations due to snow. The south east of England has received overnight snowfall and plummeting temperatures, and customers are being advised to check for any disruption before they head for the airport.

For the full BBC report: here>>

BA: report>>

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