Unite, the Union representing Engineers, Cabin Crew and Ground Staff at British Airways have launched a campaign to highlight what it calls the “BA Betrayal”
The campaign got underway with the BA Betrayal campaign being light painted on landmarks and iconic buildings including the Angel of the North, Marble Arch and the Houses of Parliament.
Unite says that British Airways is using this current pandemic to impose new terms and conditions on its staff which includes lower pay.
According to the Union, British Airways has issued what is called a “Section 188”, which dismiss everyone and tears up all agreements and will then re-employ staff on the new contracts.
The union has been seeking assurances from the airline that negotiations over cuts designed to help the airline through this crisis would result in temporary measures that would revert back when the airline returned to profit.
But they say that the planed cuts by British Airways are permanent.
On the BABetrayal website, the Union says “British Airways are using the coronavirus pandemic as an ‘opportunity’ to achieve a long-held ambition to ruthlessly and permanently cut pay and conditions for staff – wage cuts of up to 70% and thousands threatened with the sack.”
In addition to the to the changes to pay and conditions, the airline also plans to make around 12,000 employees permanently redundant.
Unite is the biggest union within British Airways and represents around 38,000 of its 42,000 strong workforce.
