UK Trade Union Warns British Airways of Strikes Ahead of New Pay Deals Deadline - Reports

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2020) UK's Unite trade union warned the country's flag carrier British Airways of possible strikes over the airlines' "scorched earth strategy," as it urges staff to accept pay cut deals in return for reduced redundancies, the Sky news reported on Tuesday.

In April, the British Airways said that it could make up to 12,000 staff redundant to prepare for operations after the pandemic amid dropped demand for air travels. At the same time, last week, the leading trade union for pilots in the United Kingdom, the British Airline Pilots Association, stated that it was reluctantly recommending an agreement envisaging pay cuts for 4,000 pilots and 270 redundancies out of a possible 1,200 initially planned by the carrier.

The British Airways staff have been given until July 31 to sign new contracts, the media said.

Unite expressed its protest over the carrier's fire and re-hire scheme, stressing that it was not negotiated with the trade union, which represents about 30,000 staff including cabin crew and maintenance workers.

A letter from the Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, to the British Airways chief executive, Alex Cruz, the former accused the carrier of arrogance and despicable fire-and-rehire approach, saying that the trade union was planning to move towards industrial action with immediate effect.