Union urges cabin crew to reject BA offer

British Airways cabin crew are to be urged to reject an offer aimed at ending their long-running dispute over jobs and working practices after talks ended without agreement, it was revealed yesterday.

Unite said it will ballot its 12,000 members on the offer, with a "strong recommendation" to reject, raising the threat of fresh industrial action.

Talks between the airline and the union have been held over the past few weeks following a series of strikes last month which caused travel chaos for the airline's passengers.

Unite said it would not set any fresh strike dates before the ballot result was known, but stressed it remained in dispute with the airline, which has lost tens of millions of pounds in recent weeks because of the industrial action and the grounding of flights due to the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.

The union said BA was insisting on taking "vindictive" disciplinary action against more than 50 union members as a result of the strikes and was refusing to restore travel perks taken away from those who took part in the industrial action.

Officials accused BA of not operating in the spirit of seeking an agreement, adding that the ballot result was expected before next week's General Election.

BA said the cost of the strikes were estimated at between £40 million and £45 million.

The airline put in place contingency plans to minimise disruption, including leasing aircraft and crew from other firms.

Unite said it was not announcing any fresh strike dates because of the continuing disruption to BA's operations caused by the Icelandic volcano eruption and the fact that many passengers remained stranded abroad.

BA said in a statement: "It is extremely disappointing that Unite is urging its members to reject our latest offer and apparently preparing for a further strike shortly after the General Election campaign ends.

"Unite is showing callous disregard for our customers and our business only a few days after we have begun our recovery from the longest and costliest airspace shutdown in history.

Despite our financial circumstances, we have put a very fair offer to Unite.

"The union's recommended rejection is clearly out of touch with the majority of crew who worked normally during Unite's previous failed attempts to ground our airline."