{"id":10534,"date":"2016-11-11T15:05:14","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T15:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10534"},"modified":"2016-11-14T12:42:14","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T12:42:14","slug":"poverty-pay-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10534","title":{"rendered":"‘Poverty pay’ vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thousands of cabin crew working for British Airways \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Mixed Fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 will begin voting on strike action next Wednesday (November 16) in a dispute over \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poverty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay levels which are leading to crew sleeping in their cars between shifts.<\/p>\n

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The ballot of members of\u00c2\u00a0 Unite working on a combination of long and short haul flights from London Heathrow airport closes on Wednesday (December 14). It comes after crew rejected a 2 per cent pay offer by the airline and on-board customer service managers fight for the right to collectively bargain after six years of no pay rises.<\/p>\n

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Since 2010 all British Airways new cabin crew employees join what is called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Mixed Fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, where despite promises that pay would be 10 per cent above the market rate, basic pay starts at just \u00c2\u014112,000 and average pay packets including allowances total just \u00c2\u014116,000 a year.<\/p>\n

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A recent Unite survey lifted the lid on the toll \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poverty pay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 was having on crew at the airline, with some members reporting doing two to three jobs on their days off to make ends meet, or sleeping in their cars between shifts because they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford the petrol to drive home.<\/p>\n

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Elsewhere in the survey over two thirds admitted to going to work unfit to fly because they could not afford to be off sick, while a massive 84 per cent said they had experienced stress and depression due to their financial circumstances.<\/p>\n

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The ballot follows last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s revelation that Willie Walsh, the chief executive of BA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parent company International Airlines Group (IAG), bizarrely swore to investors during a presentation saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0098show me the (expletive) money\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBritish Airways, once the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favourite airline\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is fast becoming the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s least liked\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, paying poverty wages while its parent company predicts annual earnings of \u00c2\u01414.7bn between this year and 2020,” said Unite regional officer Matt Smith.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe promise of salaries being between \u00c2\u014121,000 and \u00c2\u014125,000 for \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Mixed Fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 cabin crew is a flight of fancy, with BA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offer of a 2 per cent pay rise doing nothing to address pitiful pay levels which are causing dedicated crew real hardship,” he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt should be to the company’s eternal shame that they, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s national carrier, are making billions while their cabin crew responsible for maintaining a safe environment are working while sick and without adequate rest.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBA’s\u00c2\u00a0bosses, City investors and\u00c2\u00a0shareholders\u00c2\u00a0need to wake up to the anger brewing before\u00c2\u00a0Willie Walsh becomes known\u00c2\u00a0as\u00c2\u00a0the Philip Green of the skies.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of cabin crew working for British Airways \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Mixed Fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 will begin voting on strike action next Wednesday (November 16) in a dispute over \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poverty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay levels which are leading to crew sleeping in their cars between shifts.   The ballot of members of\u00c2\u00a0 Unite working on a combination of long and short haul flights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[390,626],"wps_subtitle":"BA cabin crew in strike ballot","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10534"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10541,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10534\/revisions\/10541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}