John
05-20-2010, 07:45 PM
British Airways cabin crew will go on strike for five days from Monday after the Unite union won an appeal against a High Court injunction blocking the action.
A series of five-day walkouts had been due to start this week but last Monday the High Court ruled in favour of BA as the airline made a last-ditch bid to stop the walkouts.
BA won the injunction on the basis that Unite had not told members the exact breakdown of the ballot result because it omitted to say there were 11 spoilt papers.
Today two out of three judges sitting at the Court of Appeal in London accepted the union's challenge to the High Court ruling.
After the decision, Unite announced a five-day strike from Monday next week.
Further five-day stoppages are planned from May 30-June 3 and from June 5-9, threatening travel chaos for tens of thousands of passengers.
Speaking outside court, general secretary Derek Simpson said: "This is not a moment for being triumphant - we shouldn't have been in this process.
"The case bought by BA was trivial and in my opinion irresponsible."
Mr Simpson claimed the airline's accusations of "technical difficulties" had "struck at the heart of the democratic right to strike after a properly-conduced ballot".
British Airways said it was "disappointed for its customers" that Unite's appeal had been upheld and described the strikes as "unjustified and pointless".
It added: "We are confident that thousands of cabin crew will ignore Unite's strike call and help us fly more than 70% of the customers who were booked to fly with us in the period targeted."
BA hopes to fly up to 60,000 passengers a day during the strike period, according to Sky sources.
The union originally announced four five-day stoppages from May 18-22 inclusive, then three other five-day walkouts, the last strike ending just two days before the start of the football World Cup in South Africa.
Joint Unite leader Tony Woodley repeated his claim the original dispute between BA and its cabin crew had been agreed in principle.
He said BA now had an "ideal opportunity" to settle the row despite the legal wrangle.
Mr Woodley accused the airline of being "incredibly petty and vindictive" by refusing to fully restore travel concessions to staff who went on strike in March and over disciplinary action taken against more than 50 union members.
"This dispute can be resolved by returning our people's travel concessions and by not victimising decent men and women. That is not a difficult thing to do," he said.
A series of five-day walkouts had been due to start this week but last Monday the High Court ruled in favour of BA as the airline made a last-ditch bid to stop the walkouts.
BA won the injunction on the basis that Unite had not told members the exact breakdown of the ballot result because it omitted to say there were 11 spoilt papers.
Today two out of three judges sitting at the Court of Appeal in London accepted the union's challenge to the High Court ruling.
After the decision, Unite announced a five-day strike from Monday next week.
Further five-day stoppages are planned from May 30-June 3 and from June 5-9, threatening travel chaos for tens of thousands of passengers.
Speaking outside court, general secretary Derek Simpson said: "This is not a moment for being triumphant - we shouldn't have been in this process.
"The case bought by BA was trivial and in my opinion irresponsible."
Mr Simpson claimed the airline's accusations of "technical difficulties" had "struck at the heart of the democratic right to strike after a properly-conduced ballot".
British Airways said it was "disappointed for its customers" that Unite's appeal had been upheld and described the strikes as "unjustified and pointless".
It added: "We are confident that thousands of cabin crew will ignore Unite's strike call and help us fly more than 70% of the customers who were booked to fly with us in the period targeted."
BA hopes to fly up to 60,000 passengers a day during the strike period, according to Sky sources.
The union originally announced four five-day stoppages from May 18-22 inclusive, then three other five-day walkouts, the last strike ending just two days before the start of the football World Cup in South Africa.
Joint Unite leader Tony Woodley repeated his claim the original dispute between BA and its cabin crew had been agreed in principle.
He said BA now had an "ideal opportunity" to settle the row despite the legal wrangle.
Mr Woodley accused the airline of being "incredibly petty and vindictive" by refusing to fully restore travel concessions to staff who went on strike in March and over disciplinary action taken against more than 50 union members.
"This dispute can be resolved by returning our people's travel concessions and by not victimising decent men and women. That is not a difficult thing to do," he said.