Unions ruminate on next move

Friday, 25 July 2003 5:39 AM

The Transport and General Union (T&G), the main employees' representative at strike-ridden British Airways, has said it will refrain from holding a strike ballot until mediation take its course at arbitrator acas.

The flag carrier has been hit a by wild cat strikes which began last Friday.

Tens of thousands of passengers were left with no plane to catch at Heathrow over last weekend.

In total, 400 flights were cancelled with some 7,000 passengers deserted.

Disgruntled check-in-staff protested against plans to implement a new clock-in swipe card system, which can record when staff begin and end work.

Some fear the new system will lead to layoffs during quiet tines of the year.

They are also worries that BA will introduce split shifts.

Other unions in the dispute, the GMB and Amicus, may yet decide to take action.

GMB, which represents 900 members, and Amicus may hold ballots at Heathrow and Gatwick.

As the ballots take at least three weeks to organise and unions will have to present a week's notice before industrial action is taken, no official strike action will come before next month.

It may land on the August 23-25 bank holiday weekend.

Engineers at BA are also contemplating a ballot on strike action over the clocking-in system. A ballot, unions said, would prompt BA to "rethink its position."

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