BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PASSENGERS with plans to travel British Airways this Christmas can now breathe a sigh of relief as a High Court judge has barred a holiday strike planned by the airline’s crew members.
The verdict was handed down yesterday (Dec. 17) by Justice Laura Cox, one day after the international airline made an urgent bid to block 12 days of cabin crew strikes during the busy holiday season.
Lawyers representing BA quickly applied for an emergency court injunction, as management viewed the strikes to have a devastating impact on the hundreds of thousands of travellers expected to fly BA during the season.
An injunction prohibiting the planned strikes was granted yesterday after Justice Cox found that Unite, the cabin crew union, had improperly included employees into the voting process who had already been made redundant. The original ballot reflected that some 92.5% of the votes went in favour of the holiday strike. Justice Cox ruled that the balloting error breached the 1992 Trade Union Act.
The ruling was warmly welcomed by management and travellers of BA now that all holiday flights are expected to run uninterrupted. In a press statement posted on BA’s website yesterday, management said it is “delighted” that the threat of a Christmas strike has been lifted by the Court.
“It is a decision that will be welcomed by hundreds of thousands of families in the UK and around the world. There was never any need for a strike and we hope that Unite will take this opportunity to reflect before deciding its next steps. We believe the public would want that too,” the release expressed.
Unite has formed a “better understanding” of the position of the airline, according to the release, and the next steps must lend to financial success for the benefit of customers and staff.
“It has also become very clear that our customers do not believe that old-style trade union militancy is relevant to our efforts to move British Airways back toward profitability,” the release reads.
Unite had organized the strikes for December 22 to January 2 over dissatisfaction with working conditions and salaries. According to SkyNews, representatives of Unite said the court’s decision was a "disgraceful day for democracy", adding it would hold a fresh ballot unless the dispute is resolved.
Joint General Secretaries for the union, Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley, were quoted as saying, "We will of course be studying the judgement, but the fact remains that this dispute is not settled.
"Passing the buck to the courts to do management's job for them was never going to be the answer. BA must accept that there can be no resolution except through negotiation, failing which there will inevitably be a further ballot for industrial action."
The judge refused Unite permission to appeal, but the union may still apply directly to the Court of Appeal for a more favourable ruling.
