I am extremely worried by the judicial activism involved in a series of decisions to prevent strikes. This year both Unite and RMT have been prevented from holding strikes, amid general undisguised establishment glee that workers have not been allowed to go on strike.
In today’s judgement against Unite (and for British Airways), there was no dispute that union members had genuinely voted to go on strike. But they had been notified of the result of the ballot by posted notices, and the court ruled that this did not meet the requirement that all members must be individually notified of the result.
In this country, posting a notice is sufficient notification to the neighbours if you apply for planning permission to build something next to them, and posting a notice is sufficient notification to the community if you plan to get married. The judicial ruling in no way follows the spirit of the law, which is intended to ensure that union members democratically vote on strikes. They did.
Free marketeers are quite wrong to crow over this blow to Unite. If you believe in the free market, you must believe that a contract is freely negotiated between master and employee. The employee must have the right to withdraw his labour.
An employee forbidden by the state to withdraw his labour is a slave. It really is that simple.
Well said, Craig.
Sadly this is the path we seem to have taken.
Surely this will only serve to entrench militant sentiment amongst BA staff. This will backfire for BA and the whole country will be the loser.
Agreed, good & useful post, thanks.
They should of course be free to do how they wish.
However, I wonder how well paid they will be when the company is shortly bankrupt.
“juddical activism”
Besides the spelling mistake, it is probably unwise to start bandying about a term that has such a terrible right-wing provenance in the US. You can make your argument without it.
Macho management is all the rage. Fred the Shred loved it, he f**ked it up and still took a lovely payoff!
this is not a genuine strike is it-come on-really BA poys absolute top dollar to its stewards-we’ve all seen the figures-B.A. cabin crew on £30,000 + benefits like free travel compared to rivals. I earn £15000 p.a. as a fully qualified litho printer in a private firm, like B.A.. I have no pension or perks but I realise now is not a good time to strike but could not even if I wanted.If Bob Crow on £800,000 p.a. cant put this whole thing on hold untill B.A.’s future is safe then the poor people who just want to do their job cannot and the best thing is that he now says all these disruptions are going ahead because even though both sides allmost agreed he is holding out for perks that were justifiably removed.
You’re in charge now Craig. Why doesn’t your government do something about it!
Agreed, the law is ridiculous and the ballot requirements are stacked againt the workers.
But (a) Unite must have expensive lawyers. How did they not foresee this?
But (b) I must be getting old. My sympathy is increasingly with BA…
By-the-bye Labour had 13 years to repeal or amend this odious legislation but did nothing.
Maybe we could get the General Election annulled, on the grounds that some voters weren’t balloted properly.
You’ve nailed it on the head Craig – slavery. The Establishment is choosing to play dirty and it will pay the price with a slave revolt – just like the one already underway in Greece!
“a slave revolt – just like the one already underway in Greece!”
Made Oi Laarf! Slaves don’t riot against paying taxes.
The ‘free market’ right do refuse to acknowledge that unions are a feature of the free market.
(admittedly the modern unions such as Unite are the equivalent of the big corporations in today’s unfree market – free market unions would likely differ quite radically)
RMT and Bob Crow – Give me strength!
– 11 signal boxes balloted that do not exist.
– In 67 locations they balloted more union members than worked there in total.
– 26 other locations where union members were employed were missed off the ballot.
(Missed on purpose? Indulge me if you will a little conspiracy theory.)
BA crew are the envy of the airline world and still would be under Willie’s terms.
The RMT deserve better than Bob Crow.
Mmm perhaps I should revise my faith in our judicial system – I await the appeal.
The workers have the numbers – the employers have the numbers of currency – ENSLAVERS OF THE WORLD – UNITE – OR …LET ME NOT MISQUOTE.
Willy Walsh is a complete buffoon. Will he go to a judge to stop BA losing millions because of his unrelenting confrontational stupidity?
He likes cheers on the front pages of the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and The Sun, and he gets them. How will the shareholders and especially the customers feel? I rarely fly BA now because Willy Walsh has wrecked its reliability, good name and its profitability.
Time for the shareholders (and the Establishment) to wake up and fire him for the idiot he is.
I have to disagree. The staff still have the power to withhold their work – they simply hand in their notice. Saying they’re “slaves” is hugely over the top.
When I’m unhappy in my job I move on to a better one. If the job market is bad then I do one of two things:
1. Grin and bear it until it gets better.
2. Re-train, improve and grow my skills so I can move elsewhere.
Either way, I don’t throw my toys out of the pram and go on strike.
BA crew are way over paid. They can keep striking and they can keep demanding they are paid a large premium over their colleagues working for other airlines, but BA will keep on losing money until it goes into administration. The strikers are not bright enough to get the point, sadly. That is the reality of the free market and competition.
Bob Crow / RMT – should be quietly taken off to a remote island with a nice gold course and kept there for until he’s ready to retire.
About the only real power ordinary people have is the ability to withdraw their labour, the rest of it, the voting thing, is merely window-dressing, the rather quaint idea that we live in healthy and functioning democracy… if only that were true!
The staff at BA aren’t acting agressively and demanding better conditions and higher wages, as many seem to think. Their actions are essentially defensive in nature. They are trying to protect themselves the only way they can against a management policy designed to reduce their wages and terms and conditions. And if they succeed in this strategy they will effectively have broken the Unite union and when that happens they will be back demanding more cuts from a defenceless workforce.
I don’t understand this beggar-thy-neighbour attitude either. The concept of envy that BA workers had reasonable conditions, which are now in the process of being wiped out, and that they should be grateful to even have a job compared to other poorly paid sections of the workforce.
This narrow-minded attitude, is nothing but a race to the bottom, with everyone cutting each others throats in a vain attempt to stop a general trend towards lower wages and worse conditions. A more intelligent strategy would be to support the BA workers, not undermine them, if one wanted defend one’s own standard of living.
I simply don’t understand the logic behind the thinking expressed by “working-class” Tories. Why on earth would they support policies designed specifically to hit them and benefit the rich? Why support policies that actually transfer wealth from their own pockets upwards?
Successive governments in the UK have done much to undermine the Union movement, why? Because it’s the only powerbase ordinary people have that they can actually use to protect themselves against attack.
Now people without power are very weak, that’s obvious and one can push them around with ease, turning them into virtual slaves, slaves to the whip, that is the “free market.”
So! Does this court ruling mean that my wife does not have to attend for jury duty as she has only been informed by letter?
The rot in the airline industry started with de-regulation, which allowed the cut-price airlines to undermine the established airlines beginning a process of cut-throat competition with everyone racing to the bottom, with disasterous consequneces for the industry as a whole.
And that’s just the madness of “competition” in the economic sphere. Arguably the dropping of ticket prices and the boom in the number of passengers, has had an even more negatibve impact on the environment.
We should, in fact, be aiming to curtail the number of people flying, not alowing massive expansion of the industry, exspansion that is unsustainable, based on insane levels of growth.
The “reality” is that their has never been anything close to a “free market” system anywhere. We don’t live in one, and we never will. The whole concept is a myth, a neo-liberal form of economic utopianism that’s got precious little to do with reality.
Markets are not “free” they are the opposite of “free” they are, in fact, “unfree” and always have been.
Fundamenatally, on a structural level, our economic system is… insane, incredibly wasteful, fantastically destructive, grossly unjust; and cannot continue for much longer, because it is smashing into reality and crashing.
Infinite growth economics, the paradigm of our age and civilization, is not sustainable on a planet with a finite resource base, unless one could somehow magically conjure a couple of extra, virgin planets from somewhere, yet even this would merely be a temporary respite given the system’s rapacious levels of greed and over-consumption.
Modern economics is voodoo economics, propaganda for a dying model.
In essence, the crisis we are seeing unfold is merely the beginning, a small part of a vast civilizational crisis that we face. In our lifetimes we are going to see the world we know begin to fall apart with unimaginable consequeces for us and our children.
I agree with writerman.
(sorry, couldn’t resist)
Many commentators seem to have forgotten that the BA staff had offered the company savings in excess of what the company itself had earmarked.
A casual reflection of the status of the populations in countries with little or no union recognition compared to the unionised industrial countries shows the very real benefits to all members of society of union influence and input.
please give freely to unite, this measure is designed to frustrate as much as to siphon off the union funds, every ballot, every court case cost them dearly and the courts know this.
I agree with Craig the establishment is playing dirty, would not be surprised if the queen gets a piece of paper to sign, next to toher trivia stuff, as was the case with the Chagossians and their court ruling, overturned by a signature. So even multiple court rulings in your favour can work out against you. never liked Hannover anyway.
Writerman you speak the truth.
Good stuff writeman. I like you pointing out the lack of free markets. Plunge protection team, bailing out currency. It will get worse I believe. Nothing holding the system up other than hope. Look on the upside, we have just elected a new team of tax collectors. More people than not will be poorer by the end of that regime, and poorer after the next. TAX CUTS,,what are we going to do about it? BOOM F-ALL BOOM F-ALL
I am concerned by the several commenters who appear to take the view that BA cabin staff ought not to be permitted to go on strike because they are well paid – in the view of the commenters. All employers take the view that their workers are well treated and ought not to strike. The right to withdraw labour is not contingent on any position as to the merits or otherwise of an individual dispute.
s.read @ 9:13
The loss of travel privilege to all those who participated in the last strike is not just a ‘perk’ for many BA staff. It is essential for their continued employment.
In previous years BA have positively encouraged BA staff to live at great distances from Heathrow and to use the cheap flights as a method of getting to work. I know one steward who lives in Glasgow, was formerly based in Glasgow, and is now based at Heathrow and has to commute on the shuttle to get to work.
As a penalty for taking part in the last strike he now has to pay full fare and is effectively being priced out of his job. That is why restitution of privileges is so important to them.
Yes BA cabin crew are not exactly badly paid, but they feel they are being unfairly targeted.
It was not the cabin crew who forward bought aviation fuel at top prices just before a big price drop. It was Willie Walsh.
It was not cabin crew who took part in a fares cartel resulting in a massive fine. It was Willie Walsh.
But it *will* be Willie Walsh who leaves BA in tatters with a massive golden parachute.