In a major setback to British Airways, the union representing airline’s cabin crew on Thursday won an appeal against an injunction that blocked a series of planned strikes.
After the court of appeal overturned the injunction restraining strike action by British Airways cabin crew, Unite on Thursday confirmed that cabin crew would go on strike for five days from Monday May 24.
“British Airways management now has a chance over the next three days to address our outstanding concerns and seize the possibility for industrial peace. We hope it has the wisdom to do so. Failing that, cabin crew will once more be taking industrial action with our full support,” joint general secretaries Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley said.
They said that the airline management has already been notified that further strike action will take place for five days from May 30 and five days from June 5, should there be no settlement to the dispute.
British Airways, however, said it was disappointed by the judgment. “We are very disappointed for our customers that Unite’s appeal has been upheld and that the union intends to go ahead with its unjustified and pointless strikes.”
“We will implement our contingency plan to keep British Airways flying. We are confident that thousands of cabin crew will ignore Unite’s strike call and help us fly more than 70 per cent of the customers who were booked to fly with us in the period targeted. “We will run a full programme at Gatwick and London City. At Heathrow, we will operate more than 60 per cent of our longhaul operation and more than 50 per cent of shorthaul. Unite’s strikes have failed twice and they will fail again,” the airline added.