Letter to investors warns that “Willie Walsh is playing fast and
loose with their money”
20th May 2010
Unite has today (Thursday) written to British Airways’ investors
to warn them that they are paying the price for the short-sighted
management intransigence at British Airways.
The letter from Unite’s joint general secretaries also stresses
that negotiation, not litigation, is the only way to resolve this
dispute as the high court will decide today on whether to uphold
BA's injunction against the BA cabin crew strike.
In the letter to investors Unite joint general secretaries,
Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley, say: “We want a prosperous company,
succeeding in a difficult competitive environment. Without that
success, our members won’t have jobs. That is why we have worked so
hard to get an agreement with BA in relation to the cabin crew
dispute. But all these efforts have been thwarted by a management
that is, we believe, putting ego and machismo ahead of your
interests as investors and shareholders – and playing fast and
loose with the airline's future.”
“Waging a war on the customer-facing staff is not good for
business, particularly when BA is a premium brand charging premium
prices. Smarter airlines use their cabin crew as a marketing tool.
Continuing conflict with key employees is no way to run a business
like this.
“This must and can end. We ask you to use your influence to get
BA to see sense and rebuild relationships. Then we can start to get
the profitable, successful airline we all want to see.”
Representatives of the cabin crew will deliver the letter from
Unite's joint general secretaries to investors urging them to use
their influence to bring stability back to the airline.
The letter will be delivered to each of the following top BA
investors in the City of London including Blackrock inc - BA's
biggest investor, TT International, Janus Capital Management,
Invesco and Legal & General Group plc. The union will also
write to other investors which are not based in the City including,
Scottish Widows, Iberia and Standard Life.
ENDS
For further information please contact Pauline Doyle on 07976
832 861 or Ashraf Choudhury on 020 7420 8914 or 07980 224761.
Notes to Editors:
Full text of the letter sent to investors:
Thursday, May 20
Dear BA Investor,
You are paying the price for short-sighted management
intransigence at British Airways.
We want a prosperous company, succeeding in a difficult
competitive environment. Without that success, our members won’t
have jobs. That is why we have worked so hard to get an agreement
with BA in relation to the cabin crew dispute. But all these
efforts have been thwarted by a management that is, we believe,
putting ego and machismo ahead of your interests as investors and
shareholders – and playing fast and loose with the airline's
future.
As we write, we do not know the outcome of our appeal against
the extraordinary injunction secured by the company earlier this
week. But we do know this – negotiation, not litigation, is the
only way this dispute will be resolved.
At investors' day tomorrow (Friday, 21 May), you deserve to hear
that BA is serious about settling this dispute. It should be. The
strikes earlier this year cost it £45 million by its own reckoning,
which our own and other estimates regard as a very conservative
figure. The company has told the high court it could stand to lose
another £138 million. This is shareholders’ money being poured down
the confrontational drain.
So we are asking you to use your influence to rein in this
financial irresponsibility in the name of good corporate governance
and sound business sense. We know that some of you may sympathise
with management’s objectives, particularly in trying to drive down
BA’s cost base. But consider this – we have negotiated an agreement
with the company which gives it all it is asking for in terms of
savings (tens of millions of pounds) and structural changes from
cabin crew, while also protecting our members’ essential interests.
That is good news for investors, surely.
We recommended rejection of the offer because of the
discriminatory and punitive elements management has insisted on
attaching to it in relation to travel concessions, and because of
the draconian disciplinary sanctions being applied to many of our
members.
Settling these outstanding issues would not cost the company a
single penny. They are the sort of issues which in a more mature
industrial relations’ environment are invariably swiftly cleared up
when the substantive questions have been resolved – that has been
our experience over decades of industrial negotiation. A settlement
is within reach and would bring tremendous relief to passengers and
the investment community who both need a stable operation at BA. It
is vindictiveness that stands in the way.
Waging a war on the customer-facing staff is not good for
business, particularly when BA is a premium brand charging premium
prices. Smarter airlines use their cabin crew as a marketing tool.
Continuing conflict with key employees is no way to run a business
like this.
This must and can end. We ask you to use your influence to get
BA to see sense and rebuild relationships. Then we can start to get
the profitable, successful airline we all want to see.
Yours sincerely
Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley
Joint general secretaries, Unite
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