With the Tory party poll lead slipping, it is only to be expected that a right-wing press (Telegraph, Mail, Sun, Express) are avid to portray the BA strike as ‘a return to the 1970s’.   It is nothing of the kind as the following facts show:

• Walsh, BA’ chief executive, unilaterally decided last year to cut 1,000 cabin crew and bring in a whole new fleet on inferior pay and conditions.   The 12,000 BA cabin crew who are members of Unite then balloted and voted overwhelmingly for strike action in December, only to be called off because of technical infringements of procedure.   They balloted again in February, with 80% again voting to strike on a 79% turnout.
• Nevertheless Unite, accepting that some restructuring had to take place in the light of the collapse of business in the credit crunch, proposed alternative means of of achieving the same level of cost savings (£62.5m) while repealing the majority of staff cuts.
• BA rejected these proposals, but then tabled an offer of a partial repeal of the staffing cuts and a 3-year pay deal.   Derek Simpson told Unite’s cabin crew members that this offer would go to consultative ballot while setting strike dates for the second half of March.   Observers have indicated that cabin crew were keen to resolve the dispute and that the BA deal might well have got sufficient support.
• However, the poll never happened because an hour after Unite announced the ballot, Walsh told the BBC he had withdrawn the offer because Unite had announced strike dates.   Tony Woodley then vigorously tried to get Walsh to reinstate the offer in exchange for suspending the strikes.   BA refused.
• Finally, 2 days ago, BA tabled a worse offer: pay increases over 4 years linked to inflation but with lower limits.

It is absolutely clear from this factual course of events that the reason the strike has gone ahead is that Walsh precipitately withdrew his first offer which would almost certainly have been accepted, and then obstinately reused to reinstate it.   The facts speak for themselves.

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