Case study: British Airways vs Unite Union

Résumé du document

While the latest dispute between British Airways' management and employees was in 1997, the company has experienced the 2010's most significant dispute. It involved 12,000 members against the reduction in cabin crewmembers due to a bad financial position (loss of £1bn over the two previous years). In this way, strikes began, but were stopped by injunctions due to breaches along the process. The Union of employees appealed which had overturned the decision.

These strikes cost £27m to the company and disturbed 100,000 passengers. Moreover, these strikes involved more than the employer, employees and customers, but also media, political parties and government.

In this paper, we will follow and analyze the negotiation process in order to better understand why this led to such critical situation.

Extraits

[...] The two consecutive injunctions influenced the negotiation by an escalation of the conflict, transforming it over a dispute. Indeed, when both parties went to the Court it made confusion between the people and the problem and led from the winning aim to the “beating them” aim. In the second phase, there was a quick escalation of threats; Union increased it through strikes while BA management increased it by pressure on employees and actions taken to ward off the impact of strike. However, face to the escalation of anger, Union reacted. [...]

[...] Negotiations were concluded the satisfaction of both parties”. Negotiation Analyze In this case, the agreement was hard to achieve and the aim (or BATNA) of the negotiation according to the Union, change during the process. Indeed at the beginning, the aim was to change pay, staffing level and conditions. However, in March, BA management decided to remove the travel perks and took disciplinary actions on workers who took part in the strike. At this moment, the Union's aim was about the restoration of travel perks and pay. [...]

[...] Case study: British Airways vs Unite Union Context: While the latest dispute between British Airways' management and employees was in 1997, the company has experienced the 2010's most significant dispute. It involved 12,000 members against the reduction in cabin crewmembers due to a bad financial position (loss of £1bn over the two previous years). In this way, strikes began, but were stopped by injunctions due to breaches along the process. The Union of employees appealed which had overturned the decision. [...]

[...] In addition, BA borrowed cabin crew (6000) and planes from other airlines in order to ward off the impact of industrial action and warranty to customers 79% of long-haul flight and 58% of short-haul flight. However, in April 2011, Unite union agreed to suspend strike if British Airways management reinstated the settlement proposal withdrawn. Phase Finding an agreement Being under political pressure to find an agreement, Unite raised pressure on the BA's representative (Willie Wash). This last one has been succeed by Keith William who granted an extension to the strike in order to begin talks. By doing this, Keith William also gave a breathing space, which reflects an improvement in the negotiation process. [...]

[...] This first injunction was made on the offense of the requirement to inform of the outcome of strike's ballots to the members (“section 231 of the trade union and labor relations In response to the strike movement, BA decided to withdraw staff's perks (compensation for the food, housing A second strike was planned but once again, it obtained an injunction (Union did not informed members about the number of spoilt ballots). However on May, Unite wins appeal and the right to strike. [...]