BA cabin crew strike will go ahead

The British Airways cabin crew strike is set to start next Saturday March 20 after the airline withdrew its latest offer on pay and working conditions.

Len McCluskey, Unite assistant general secretary, announced this morning that BA cabin crew were due to vote on the latest proposals on pay and working conditions, but the airline withdrew these proposals after the union announced the strike dates.

A BA spokesman said: “We made the offer on condition with the union that they did not name strike dates; because the strike dates have now been named the offer is no longer on the table.”

He added that although the law required Unite to name its strike dates by March 15, the airline had offered to allow the union to extend this deadline by three weeks in order to further encourage negotiations.

However, a Unite spokesman denied the claim that it had agreed not to name potential strike dates as part of the latest BA offer, adding: “Unless something happens in the next week, strikes will start on March 20.”

The union announced seven days of strikes in total: three days from March 20 and four days from March 27.