British Airways Pilots to Strike in September

AT Staff

6 years ago

August 24, 2019 British Airways A380-800 | Heathrow Airport Share Tweet Share Share Email Comments (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) has given notice to British Airways that it will call on its members to strike on 9th, 10th, and 27th September 2019.

The announcement comes after the airline lost a legal challenge in the High Court to block industrial action.

The pilots union said that it has put forward a number of packages that would have resolved this dispute without a strike, and which it could have recommended to its members for acceptance prior to strike action. British Airways did not accept any of these packages, according to the union.

In these circumstances, with a 93% vote in favor of taking industrial action, and with no prospect of any further meaningful talks, BALPA said it has no choice but to call this action.

The airline said that it is completely unacceptable that BALPA is destroying the travel plans of tens of thousands of our customers with this unjustifiable strike action.

“Our proposed deal of 11.5percentt over three years is very fair and well above the UK’s current rate of inflation, and by contrast to BALPA, has been accepted by the members of the Unite and GMB trade unions, which represent nearly 90 per cent of all British Airways colleagues including engineers, cabin crew and ground staff. In addition to basic pay, pilots also receive annual pay increments and regular flying allowances”, British Airways said in a statement.

According to BALPA, a day of strike action will cost British Airways around £40m.