Unite to consult across BA membership on union-busting

"Unite remains committed to finding a settlement to the cabin crew dispute at British Airways, as it has from the beginning. In the course of negotiations we have offered the company everything it wanted and more in terms of cost reductions and changes in working practices.

"The company for its part has always claimed that it wanted to put the interests of passengers first. However, it has continued to prolong the dispute by insisting on collective punishment of cabin crew who took strike action with the removal of staff travel concessions, and through the draconian use of disciplinary procedures to sack and suspend crew members, including many union representatives.

"In recent weeks, these suspensions have escalated, with two reps recently suspended simply for attempting to represent other crew facing disciplinary action. Around 80 crew have now been sacked or suspended, often for the most trivial reasons.

"It is now clear that agreed procedures are being abused for purposes of trying to destroy trade unionism among cabin crew. It was my view from the start that this, not cost reductions, was BA's real agenda and looking at the company's recent actions unfortunately I have been proved right.

"This behaviour makes a mockery of commitments Willie Walsh entered into to ensure that disciplinary procedures would not be conducted in this way. It undermines the credibility of all company commitments and is not the action of a management looking to resolve the dispute.

"This is no longer a matter for BA cabin crew alone. If trade unionism is smashed among cabin crew, then we can be sure these methods will be extended to other groups of unionised BA employees. Indeed, broader industrial relations are already being disrupted, for example by the refusal of BA to allow cabin crew representatives to attend meetings relating to BA's massive pensions problems, an issue we have been working closely with the company to help resolve. How on earth can this be in the interests of the company?

"I am therefore calling an early meeting of representatives of all Unite BA members to set out the facts of what is happening in the company, in particular what I believe, in the absence of any serious proposals from the company to settle the dispute, is a plan to eliminate Unite from a sizeable part of the company and weakening the position of the union in the remainder, and to discuss the need for a coordinated and concerted union response.

"While it remains my hope that an agreement can be reached with the company, BA's conduct makes it inevitable that we prepare for other outcomes."

Unite has around 30,000 members at British Airways.