‘Surviving on Pot Noodles’

As BA Mixed Fleet cabin crew begin their 48-hour strike today (January 10) over poverty pay, UNITElive speaks to Jorge*, a former crew member who explains the struggles he faced in a job that he said consumed him.

Jorge started working for British Airways in 2010, just as the airline introduced its new Mixed Fleet, made up of cabin crew working on both long- and short-haul flights.

Despite promises from BA of much higher salaries, Mixed Fleet crew languish on wages just barely above the minimum wage – average annual earnings, including allowances are £16,000, with basic pay rates starting at just £12,192.

“My take home pay amounted to maybe £1,500 a month, including allowances,” Jorge told UNITElive. “Even though I was working full-time in an unimaginably draining job, it wasn’t enough to pay all my bills – I was receiving housing benefit from the council.

“They give you an allowance for food but it’s nowhere near enough if you want to stay healthy,” he added.

Jorge was lucky in that he had his own small business to help support his income but he said many of his colleagues would try to scrimp and save by spending as little on food as possible.

Chronic stress and fatigue

“I knew people who virtually ate only pot noodles,” he explained. “This is especially terrible because the job is already so physically demanding – chronic stress and fatigue were common problems.”

Unlike crew at other airlines, BA mixed fleet crew did not get proper breaks to help them recuperate from jet lag.

“I’d do multiple long haul flights to Las Vegas over a short time period with only two-day rest breaks in between,” he said. “At first you can manage for a while but eventually it all builds up and the fatigue sets in – you can barely go about your day.”

If there’s one thing Jorge wished passengers who might not be entirely on-board with this week’s strikes understood it’s that passengers, too, are hurt by Mixed Fleet crew’s low pay and poor terms and conditions.

“There’s radically high turnover among Mixed Fleet so you constantly have to be coaching new crew members,” he explained. “There might be high turnover at budget carriers but this doesn’t necessarily pose a long-term problem for the service – that’s because on-board these flyers the service is relatively simple.

“With Mixed Fleet, you’re dealing with a mixture of long-haul and short-haul flights, with various different types of aircraft and with four different classes on long-haul flights.”

Safety concerns

Without a long-term, well-trained fleet, Jorge noted, the service will inevitably suffer – and safety falls through the cracks as well.

“I’ve always been a fast learner but it took me two full years to become entirely confident about all the safety and security features of the different aircraft we flew on,” he said. “Most people on Mixed Fleet don’t last nearly that long in the job.

“Passengers should think about the bigger picture – Mixed Fleet crew aren’t greedy; they just want to be able to provide the best and safest service they can but that’s just not possible on such low pay. Anyone who is truly committed to the job will go to another airline where the pay and terms and conditions are better, which in turn empowers you to provide a better service.”

In the end, Jorge argues, BA’s intransigence over Unite members’ demands makes little sense in the face of one incontrovertible fact – that there’s no business case to be made for keeping Mixed Fleet crew on poverty pay.

“British Airways makes millions in profits and what Mixed Fleet cabin crew want will barely make a dent in these profits,” he said.

“People also don’t realise how management constantly grinds you down; how they take advantage of the fact that Mixed Fleet crew are young and often don’t know their rights. And they do everything they can to keep things that way – for example, they’ll put a very vaguely worded clause in the contract that makes it seems as though you can’t join a union. They basically trick you into not joining.

“Just as important as winning better pay, the strike is also an opportunity for these crew members to assert themselves, to stand up for their rights.”

 

*Named changed to protect privacy

 

Pic of January 10 protest by Mark Thomas