{"id":11463,"date":"2017-02-14T16:46:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T16:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11463"},"modified":"2017-02-14T16:46:48","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T16:46:48","slug":"ba-crew-pile-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11463","title":{"rendered":"BA crew pile on pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Unite members working for British Airways\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 mixed fleet piled further pressure on the airline today (February 14) by announcing \u00c2\u00a0a further four days of strikes on top of the four days of action planned for later this week running\u00c2\u00a0from just past midnight on Friday (February 17) to 23:59pm on Monday (February 20).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The latest strike announcement of strike action running from 12.01am on Wednesday (February 22) to 23.59pm, Saturday (February 25) inclusively, follows calls for British Airways to enter talks at the conciliation service Acas and reach an agreement to avoid further strike disruption.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A refusal by British Airways to take up the union&#8217;s offer to reach a settlement has resulted in the latest escalation said Unite, whose mixed fleet members have been embroiled in a bitter dispute over poverty pay at the airline.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So far, there has been a total of 11 days of strike action since the beginning of January which has led to the cancellation of flights and the airline chartering, or \u00e2\u20ac\u0098wet leasing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, aircraft from other airlines such as Titan Airways, Vueling and Thomson Airways to cover striking cabin crew.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For every hour British Airways &#8216;wet leases&#8217; an aircraft from another airline to cover striking cabin crew it costs in the region of \u00c2\u01412,000 to \u00c2\u01413,000,&#8221; said Unite regional officer Matt Smith.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur estimates put the amount of money British Airways has spent on defending the dispute and poverty pay at \u00c2\u01411m.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is money which the airline has taken a conscious decision to give to other airlines rather than addressing pay levels which are forcing hardworking mixed fleet cabin crew into financial hardship.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We would urge British Airways to reconsider its costly intransigence and enter talks at Acas and reach an agreement.&#8221;<br \/>\nSince 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\u014112,192 with \u00c2\u01413 an hour flying pay. Unite estimates that on average \u00e2\u20ac\u0098mixed fleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 cabin crew earn \u00c2\u014116,000, including allowances, a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite members working for British Airways\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 mixed fleet piled further pressure on the airline today (February 14) by announcing \u00c2\u00a0a further four days of strikes on top of the four days of action planned for later this week running\u00c2\u00a0from just past midnight on Friday (February 17) to 23:59pm on Monday (February 20). &nbsp; The latest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[390,96],"wps_subtitle":"More strike days ahead in poverty pay fight","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11463"}],"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=11463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11464,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11463\/revisions\/11464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}