{"id":10996,"date":"2017-01-10T19:16:55","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T19:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10996"},"modified":"2017-01-11T11:04:43","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T11:04:43","slug":"ba-cabin-crew-ms-food-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10996","title":{"rendered":"BA: Cabin crew M&#038;S food protest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Unite members working as cabin crew for British Airways\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0098mixed fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 will be handing in a letter to Marks and Spencer at its headquarters tomorrow (January 11) calling on the retailer to demand BA stops paying poverty wages to sell M&amp;S food.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The call comes on the second day of a 48-hour stoppage over poverty pay by \u00e2\u20ac\u0098mixed fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 cabin crew and coincides with tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s roll-out of the new M&amp;S food range on short haul flights across British Airways. The introduction of the M&amp;S range follows the withdrawal of inclusive in-flight meals on BA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s short haul flights.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It will see \u00e2\u20ac\u0098mixed fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 cabin crew operating out of Heathrow selling the same food, but being paid a basic starting salary which is up to \u00c2\u01416,000 less than customer assistants will get in M&amp;S\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Greater London stores from April this year, when their pay rises to above the London living wage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With a bacon roll costing \u00c2\u01414.75 on board, a packet of crisps \u00c2\u01411 and a soft drink \u00c2\u01411.80, a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098mixed fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 cabin crew member would have to work nearly three hours to cover the cost of basic meal with their \u00c2\u01413 an hour allowance for food.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow&#8217;s call comes as hundreds of &#8216;mixed fleet&#8217; cabin crew stayed away from work today and joined picket lines around Heathrow airport.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bCabin crew working for British Airways\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0098mixed fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, 36,000 feet up in air, face earning up to \u00c2\u01416,000 less basic pay than M&amp;S staff selling the same food in store,&#8221; said\u00c2\u00a0Unite national officer Oliver Richardson.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bM&amp;S needs to ask itself whether it&#8217;s comfortable with this injustice and British Airways&#8217; pitiful pay rates which have seen hundreds of &#8216;mixed fleet&#8217; cabin crew stay away from work and mount picket lines in their fight for fair pay.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe pennies &#8216;mixed fleet&#8217; cabin crew are paid mean they will struggle to afford the M&amp;S sandwiches they sell,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We would urge M&amp;S to do the right thing and tell British Airways to follow its lead and pay \u00e2\u20ac\u0098mixed fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 cabin crew a fair and proper living wage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBritish Airways need to wake up to the anger and the strength of feeling its confrontational stance on pay has generated and talk meaningfully with Unite our concerns.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite members working as cabin crew for British Airways\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0098mixed fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 will be handing in a letter to Marks and Spencer at its headquarters tomorrow (January 11) calling on the retailer to demand BA stops paying poverty wages to sell M&amp;S food. &nbsp; The call comes on the second day of a 48-hour stoppage over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[390,132],"wps_subtitle":"In-flight food firm called on in pay fight","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10996"}],"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=10996"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11000,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10996\/revisions\/11000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}