British Airways is facing a fresh strike threat after cabin crew rejected the airline's latest final pay offer aimed at ending the long-running dispute.
Less than half of the 11,000 members balloted by Unite voted on the offer of a 2.9% pay rise next year, with 3% the year after.
However, 3,419 voted against the deal, compared with just 1,686 who voted in favour of the deal.
A Unite spokesperson said: "The union will now meet with cabin crew representatives this afternoon to consider the next steps."
The union had not given its members a guiding opinion on the offer, leaving them to make up their own minds on BA's offer.
Meanwhile, the cabin crew branch of Unite, The British Airways Stewards and Stewardesses Association (Bassa), published a guide detailing what it considered to be the good and bad points of the deal.
The good points included the pay offer, the possible expansion of work at Gatwick airport, the pledge of non-victimisation of workers involved in disciplinary cases. and the partial reinstatement of staff travel.
However, the staff travel was also mentioned on the 'bad' list, because it was only a partial reinstatement. Other bad points included the "vastly reduced" terms and conditions for new staff, no further recruitment to BA's current fleet of aircraft and the continued dismissal of staff in what it called a "disproportionate and unfair way".
The dispute began last year over BA's plans to cut costs by reducing the number of cabin crew on flights. Cabin crew have take 22 days of strike action so far as the dispute continues.
(KMcA/BMcC) |
