The planned strike over Christmas by British Airways cabin crew was declared illegal by the High Court last week.
It was BA’s decision to impose changes to working patterns (reducing cabin crew by at least one on all flights, for example) which provoked the latest stand-off. Unite insists that the changes have been imposed in breach of contract. BA insists they have not.
BA applied to the High Court for an injunction to prevent the strike from going ahead.
Mrs Justice Cox agreed with BA’s case that Unite had improperly included employees already set to leave the company in the strike ballot.
She also criticised the timing of the planned strike saying, "a strike of this kind over the 12 days of Christmas is fundamentally more damaging to BA and the wider public than a strike taking place at almost any other time of the year."
There is in fact not the slightest question that those mistakenly balloted half-way through taking redundancy could have changed the result. The original ballot saw 92.5% of voters in favour of industrial action. It could be argued that Mrs Justice Cox has made a transparently political decision to swing the balance of power in BA’s favour.
BA, which even before the strike ballot was on course for record losses this year, certainly could not afford to lose hundreds of millions of pounds over the Christmas period and a first meeting had already taken place between Unite and BA’s chief executive, Willie Walsh, before the High Court decision. At a stroke Mrs Justice Cox has snatched away the union’s key bargaining chip.
Joint general secretary of Unite, Derek Simpson said of Willie Walsh “I doubt he will be too interested in meeting now, on the grounds that he has got his decision.”
By banning the strike, the High Court has ensured that the dispute will drag on, when otherwise BA might well have been forced to settle without cancelling a single flight.
Unite could still appeal against the High Court verdict and Derek Simpson has vowed to keep on fighting – there are already plans for a fresh ballot.
So BA customers can proceed with their travel plans for now, but watch this space for further developments as Unite are warning that the dispute is 'far from settled.…