{"id":22042,"date":"2020-06-11T16:30:24","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T15:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=22042"},"modified":"2020-06-11T16:30:24","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T15:30:24","slug":"ba-parent-iag-pleads-poverty-while-set-on-air-europa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=22042","title":{"rendered":"BA parent IAG pleads poverty while set on Air Europa"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

As we have previously reported on UNITElive, British Airways is set on its \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and hire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 policy, by sacking 12,000 of its 42,000-strong workforce, and re-employing the remaining 30,000 staff on severely reduced pay and terms.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, UNITElive posted a Unite video<\/a> explaining BA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0finances\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u201c demolishing the airline\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s claim that it must fire its\u00c2\u00a0workforce and rehire those that survive on inferior contracts.<\/p>\n

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in-depth analysis of British Airways\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 financial position reveals the true extent of BA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan to use the health\u00c2\u00a0crisis as cover to slash jobs, pay and conditions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c so as to transfer ever greater sums of money to its Spanish parent company IAG and its shareholders.<\/p>\n

Unite will be meeting IAG\u00c2\u00a0financial analysts in the coming days to explain why\u00c2\u00a0IAG can afford to see out this crisis without such drastic cuts.<\/p>\n

And, quite incredibly,\u00c2\u00a0while the airline is claiming poverty,\u00c2\u00a0its parent company IAG is ploughing ahead with the purchase of the\u00c2\u00a0airline Air Europa, at a cost of over \u00e2\u201a\u00ac1bn.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Unite has today (June 11) informed the EU commissioner for competition, Margrethe Vestager, that it intends to act as a third party opposing the acquisition of Air Europa by BA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parent company IAG.<\/p>\n

The union is now in talks with the DG Competition case team who will be investigating the takeover.<\/p>\n

Strongly criticised<\/em><\/strong>
\nUnite has strongly criticised IAG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on a new acquisition, while pleading poverty as an excuse to execute its brutal \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 strategy on its BA workforce \u00e2\u20ac\u201c stripping workers of their terms and conditions while cutting thousands of jobs.<\/p>\n

Unite has\u00c2\u00a0identified a number of serious competition concerns with the potential to scupper the Air Europa deal. These include IAG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s increasing domination of the market for flights from Europe to South America; IAG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dominant position at Madrid-Barajas airport; and the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s return to a monopolistic hold over the Spanish domestic market.<\/p>\n

These issues all make it likely that the acquisition would drive up ticket prices and reduce the number of fights on some routes, matters of serious concern to the European Commission.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is questioning why IAG\u00c2\u00a0is\u00c2\u00a0seeking to fire and rehire the workforce at BA while its parent IAG is ploughing ahead with buying an airline for over \u00e2\u201a\u00ac1bn,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Sharon Graham, Unite executive officer.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere are a number of reasons\u00c2\u00a0why this merger of Iberia with Air Europa would appear to be anti-competitive.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe case team at DG Competition have been very open to us sharing our concerns with them. We are now gathering further detailed evidence from a number of expert\u00c2\u00a0sources and discussing the takeover with other parties that could be negatively impacted.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are confident that we have a strong case and we look forward to officially presenting all our evidence when Phase I of the investigation begins,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

Bizarre twist<\/em><\/strong>
\nAnd in a completely bizarre twist reports in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (June 11) media are saying that British Airways\u00c2\u00a0is to put some of its renowned art collection up for sale \u00e2\u20ac\u201c apparently in an attempt to raise cash \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as it prepares to lay off thousands of staff.<\/p>\n

The airline has called in art valuers and is planning to auction off at least 10 major pieces, some valued at more than \u00c2\u01411m.<\/p>\n

BA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s art collection includes works by British artists including Damien Hirst, Peter Doig, Anish Kapoor, Chris Ofili and Tracey Emin.<\/p>\n

According to the Evening Standard, Sotheby\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s has valued a number of works held by BA for a potential imminent sale, with one piece by Bridget Riley \u00e2\u20ac\u201c described by some as a masterpiece, and raise millions for the airline.<\/p>\n

The move comes as the majority of BA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fleet remains grounded because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the entire aviation industry facing an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

\u0102\u0081lex Cruz, BA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chief executive, had promised to \u00e2\u20ac\u015btake every possible action to conserve cash\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 when BA notified unions it was planning redundancies.<\/p>\n

British Airways did not comment on the art selloff, but according to the Guardian<\/a> a source said the airline was not ruling anything out to save money and jobs.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u2039BA is reported to have said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are acting now to protect as many jobs as possible. The airline industry is facing the deepest structural change in its history, as well as facing a severely weakened global economy.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

Unite, representing BA workers, is disputing the need for the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mass job cuts plan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 12,000 jobs to go with the remaining 30,000 staff to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fired and rehired\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 under worse conditions and pay \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while IAG plans to buy another airline .<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe company is claiming to be in financial difficulties while\u00c2\u00a0BA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Spanish parent company IAG is still planning to spend close to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac1bn to buy another airline, Air Europa,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Unite general secretary Len McCluskey.<\/p>\n

WATCH <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fire and rehire<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter:\u00c2\u00a0@BABetrayal,\u00c2\u00a0Facebook:\u00c2\u00a0Facebook.com\/BAbetrayal<\/em><\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Compiled by Amanda Campbell @amanda_unite<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we have previously reported on UNITElive, British Airways is set on its \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and hire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 policy, by sacking 12,000 of its 42,000-strong workforce, and re-employing the remaining 30,000 staff on severely reduced pay and terms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1214],"tags":[589,390,511,1295],"wps_subtitle":"Unite takes case against IAG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s takeover to European Commission","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22042"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22042"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22046,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22042\/revisions\/22046"}],"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=22042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}