Ballot to open on November 16
BA cabin staff will start their vote on industrial action against the airline the day the disputed contracts come into force.
Unite the union, which represents the majority of BA's 14,000 cabin crew, will open the ballot on November 16.
Unite said: "BA's continued failure to consult properly on 2,000 notified redundancies and the company's determination to impose fundamental changes to working practices, work organisation and terms and conditions of employment leave it no other option but to ballot the cabin crew workforce."
The ballot will close on Monday, December 14, leaving open the possibility of strike action from December 21.
BA's ceo Willie Walsh urged Unite on Friday (November 6) to withdraw its plans for industrial action, saying that structural change is necessary to secure long term profitability for the airline.
BA announced on Friday it had made a pre-tax loss of £292m between April and September of this year, and confirmed that the changes to working agreements would go ahead as planned.
"We will introduce further structural change in the second half to secure the long term future for our business," said Mr Walsh.
"We are cutting winter capacity by 6 per cent and making further manpower reductions of 3000 by March 2010 and permanent changes to the way we run our business."
The airline has been in talks with Unite and another union, GMB, for several months, after announcing plans to make the equivalent of 1,700 staff redundant.
The cuts to the number of cabin crew on each plane have allowed the airline to accept a large number of requests for voluntary redundancy, part-time contracts and staff transfers between different parts of the business, it said.
BA also wants to impose a two year wage freeze on staff and change working practices.
This includes cutting staff on long hauls flights from 15 to 14, a change the airline plans to impose on November 16.
Unite said that BA's reduction of crew numbers is "unfair and unworkable, leaving fewer people doing more work but for less money - and this will hit the service to passengers".
The union added it fears that fewer crew will lead to a worsening service to BA customers as crew are forced to prioritise essential tasks.
Unite also filed an injunction at the High Court to try and stop BA introducing new working arrangements. The hearing took place on November 5, when it was decided by the court to proceed to a full trial on February 1.
www.ba.com [1] www.unitetheunion.org [2]