Unite spells out the reasons why BA offer was 'mission impossible' for cabin crew

The proposals - submitted by the airline over three days of talks - were worse than those put forward by the airline - and suddenly withdrawn - last week.

Described by Tony Woodley, Unite joint general secretary as setting Unite 'mission impossible', the main difficulties were:

• BA's insistence that crew sign up to a four year pay deal which will, at best, freeze real pay until 2014 - but most likely will see a real pay cut year on year by BA. Crew had offered to cut pay for one year and give the company a three year deal, but that has been dismissed by BA as the airline looks to make a wider attack on wages.
• The company's failure to commit to extending the validity of the industrial action ballot to allow for members to be balloted on any offer from BA. This failure could have led, in the event of a rejection of BA's proposals by cabin crew, to a third strike ballot in five months - and continued instability for the airline, its customers and the wider BA workforce.
• BA's failure to address Unite's concerns about the impact on existing crew as the airline pushes forward with its new fleet plans, in particular how routes will be distributed between existing and new crew in the future.

Calling once again for BA to stop waging this war against its workforce, joint general secretary Tony Woodley said: "The disruption that passengers will inevitably experience over the next three days could have been spared had BA grasped that you cannot put an offer on the table one day, take it off the next and then come back with a worse one a few days later.

"To expect this union to recommend to its members any such proposal shows an insecure grasp of industrial relations reality.

"Unite remains available at any time to talk to BA. We urge them to think again about what is truly in the long-term best interests of this great airline."