BA cabin crew stage three-day strike

British Airways cabin crew staged their first strike in 13 years today, causing disruption for thousands of passengers, with further action planned in the coming weeks.

Unite said early indications were that its 12,000 members were solidly supporting the three-day walkout, called in a bitter dispute over cost-cutting.

Picket lines were mounted at airports including Heathrow, which will be the worst affected by the strike.

Unite said that no buses which normally transport crew to work had crossed picket lines this morning.

The union also claimed that two of the planes chartered by BA as part of the airline’s contingency plans were delayed by technical problems and that more than 100 complaints had been made by passengers about catering.

BA made no immediate comment on the claims.

Just under two thirds of Heathrow’s long-haul services are expected to fly this weekend and less than a third of short-haul flights.

BA is planning to operate all long-haul flights to and from Gatwick plus around half of short-haul flights, while all flights to and from London City Airport are expected to fly as scheduled.

BA said it was confident of handling as many as 49,000 passengers today and the same number tomorrow, which compares with a figure of around 75,000 for a normal weekend day in March.

Some passengers are due to travel with other carriers on specially chartered planes.

BA has arranged with more than 60 other airlines to take BA customers on their flights.

Some passengers brought forward flights booked for this weekend and Monday but were left disappointed when they arrived at Heathrow yesterday to find earlier flights had been overbooked and they were not guaranteed a seat.

The strike went ahead following the collapse of talks, which ended with Unite and BA blaming each other.

Unite’s joint leader Tony Woodley accused BA of wanting a “war” with the union and complained that BA chief executive Willie Walsh had tabled a worse offer than one withdrawn last week.

Mr Woodley said today that he had been set “mission impossible” because of the new offer, which included a four-year pay deal the union maintained would at best freeze wages until 2014.

The union had offered a 2.6% pay cut this year as part of a three-year deal.

Unite also claimed today that BA had failed to commit to extending the validity of the current industrial action ballot so that members could vote on any offer from BA.

“This failure could have led, in the event of a rejection of BA’s proposals by cabin crew, to a third strike ballot in five months – and continued instability for the airline, its customers and the wider BA workforce,” said a Unite official.

Mr Woodley said today: “The disruption that passengers will inevitably experience over the next three days could have been spared had BA grasped that you cannot put an offer on the table one day, take it off the next and then come back with a worse one a few days later.

“To expect this union to recommend to its members any such proposal shows an insecure grasp of industrial relations reality.

“Unite remains available at any time to talk to BA. We urge them to think again about what is truly in the long-term best interests of this great airline.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged the two sides to resolve the dispute, but today Tory leader David Cameron will accuse Gordon Brown of failing to act because Unite is “bankrolling” the Labour Party.

Another four-day stoppage is planned from March 27 and further action is expected from mid-April unless the deadlock is broken.