British Airways Strike Negotiations Postponed

Negotiations to resolve the 15-month dispute with British Airways and their unions has been postponed until today (Friday). Willie Walsh, the carrier’s chief executive, met with Unite leaders on Wednesday night in a bid to find a solution. However, the secret talks lasted for 6 hours and are anticipated to continue today.

The first of 3 five-day strikes will also be over today, and the second round is set to start on Sunday and end Thursday, while the third strike wave will start on June 5 and end June 9. Since Monday, hundreds of flights have been grounded, and these next waves will mean even more flights are canceled.

Both sides of the dispute still seem defiant, with Unite joint general secretaries Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley slamming Walsh during an address to striking cabin crew at Heathrow Airport this week. They also repeated an earlier offer to hold off on the industrial action if Walsh would just give back travel concessions that were taken from staff during the March walkouts.

Plus, British Airways warned earlier in the week that they plan to challenge the legality of the strikes, and they haven’t said anything about this changing. If a deal can be reached by Saturday before the next wave of strikes starts, this won’t be an issue.

It’s been made clear that Unite leaders don’t want to negotiate with Walsh anymore. Earlier this week they called for the chief executive to step aside to allow chief financial officer Keith Williams to head the talks. They believe they will be given a more favorable deal from Williams since he was the one that headed the negotiations over pension issues.