BALPA puts all-out strike concept back on the agenda
Socialist Outlook1990sScanned print read by OCR, and not yet proofread: expect run-together words, dropped letters and, where a piece began partway down a page, a few lines of its neighbour. The printed page is the authority.
3,200 BA pilots and flight engineers have voted overwhelmingly for an all-out incerinite strike in «erence or their conditions of work, for improved pay and against differential pay rates. This has an important significance for the trade union movement in Britain.
The concept of an all-out indefinite strike has been almost lost. Strike deci. sions, where they have been asked for and obtained, have been routinely reduced to token one or two-day actions or a series of such actions. Union leaders have insisted on telling the employers when workers will be back at work as welf as when they are going out. Strike action has been reduced to a level the employers can cope with, or at least a level which poses no serious threat. This is currently the case in the PO and on LUL. This ballot by BALPA breaks this mould.
Of course BALPA have yet to carry out their decision, but their willingness to ballot and to threaten serious action should be noted by trade union activists across the unions.
The challenge to differential pay rates for the same iobs within BA is particularly principled. These differentials are a growing phenomenon across the labour force and are rarely challenged by the unions. One major demand of this ballot is the defence of a minority of the workforce.
Although BA air crews have considerable industrial strength, the strike will be fought hard by management if it goes ahead. The strike which is due to start on 16 July could cost BA over €40 million a day and throw air traffic into chaos. This would be the first strike of British air crews for eighteen years.
BA are already threatening to bring air crews from abroad, hire them from other air lines or recruit alternative crews. They are reputedly searching their job application database for available pilots.
Management will attempt to operate as many services as possible this way if the strike goes ahead. If the strike goes ahead and scabbing takes place to any significant degree, it could be a bitterly fought battle. Whatever happens from here, however, BALPA will have done the trade union movement in Britain a service if it puts all-out strike action back on the agenda.