London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Jul 30, 2025

Strike vote shows British Airways still appears to have a Heathrow problem

Strike vote shows British Airways still appears to have a Heathrow problem

Unions can hardly be blamed for flexing their muscles in the middle of a tight labour market and a shortage of qualified workers - a shortage caused in part because the airlines, in order to cut costs at the height of the pandemic, arguably made more redundancies than they needed to.

"I've had plenty of luck over the last five years, all of it bad."

So said Sir Rod Eddington, former chief executive of British Airways, the man who steered the airline through the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and an outbreak of the SARS virus 18 months later.

Sir Rod, an easy-going Australian who was liked by just about everyone in the industry, including BA's arch-rival Sir Richard Branson, was reflecting not on 9/11 but on an industrial dispute that afflicted BA just as he was preparing to step down in August 2005.

A strike at Gate Gourmet, a contract catering firm that supplied meals to BA, spilled over into the airline itself - costing it around £45m in cancelled flights.

The relevance of this episode, 17 years ago, is that it highlighted problems specific to BA at Heathrow - where the main staff unions had a reputation for being more militant than elsewhere around the country.

As Sir Rod noted at the time: "Ask yourself what's happened at Gatwick, where we have a very big union? At Birmingham and Manchester? Nothing."

To judge from today's vote by check-in staff, who are members of Unite, BA still appears to have a Heathrow problem.

The airline's comment today that its Heathrow-based employees had declined an offer that had been accepted by colleagues elsewhere across the network is eerily familiar to the remarks made by Sir Rod all those years ago.

To that can be overlaid the generally challenging industrial relations at BA - which are a legacy of its past as a state-owned industry.

Union membership is significantly higher in the public sector than in the private sector and it is no coincidence that it is companies that were once state-owned - like BA, Royal Mail and, to a lesser extent, BT - which tend to have worse industrial relations than most private companies.

Union representation among BA employees is significantly higher than competitors like Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair and EasyJet, which have always been in the private sector.

Sir Rod was not the first BA chief executive - and certainly not the last - to complain about a mentality among some employees that they still thought they were working for the government rather than a privately-owned company operating in a ferociously competitive market.

And that competition has intensified during the 35 years since BA was privatised. It first came from lower-cost short-haul carriers like Ryanair and Easyjet. That still left BA able to rely on highly profitable transatlantic routes where, for many years, its only meaningful competition was from Virgin Atlantic.

But in the last 10-15 years it has also found itself facing more serious competition on long haul routes, particularly in and out of Heathrow, from deep-pocketed carriers like Emirates.

Another factor is that disputes at Heathrow have a habit of flaring up out of nowhere. That is partly because, in the past, there has been competition among unions to sign up members.

That has led at times to unions adopting a more militant stance to prove to would-be recruits that they are capable of driving a harder bargain with the employer than other unions.

British Airways is not the only airline facing industrial action this summer



A classic of the genre here was an unofficial dispute which blew up in July 2003 - just as the summer holiday season was approaching its peak - when check-in and ticket desk staff walked out after BA introduced an automated swipe-card system.

Again, the system had been introduced by BA at other airports, but was resisted by Heathrow employees - with competition for members between the Transport & General Workers Union and Amicus (which later merged to form Unite) and the GMB union making the situation even more volatile. Unite and the GMB are the two unions at the centre of this latest dispute.

Now, it is worth noting that BA is not the only airline facing industrial action this summer. Even Ryanair and EasyJet, both of which have far better industrial relations than BA, are facing some stoppages in coming months.

And the unions can hardly be blamed for flexing their muscles in the middle of a tight labour market and a shortage of qualified workers - a shortage caused in part because the airlines, in order to cut costs at the height of the pandemic, arguably made more redundancies than they needed to.

But it does appear that BA still has more problems specific to it.

BA's parent company, International Airlines Group, appeared to recognise this when, after a particularly feisty industrial dispute during the pandemic involving proposed job losses among cabin crew on more generous legacy pension schemes, it showed the door to Alex Cruz, BA's former chief executive, whose name had become synonymous with cost-cutting.

In his place came the more amelioratory Sean Doyle who, very publicly, admitted BA had an urgent task in repairing the airline's public image.

He and the rest of BA's management will be bitterly disappointed that this row has flared up now - just as the business appeared to be getting back on its feet after two disastrous summers.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
Botswana Seeks Controlling Stake in De Beers as Anglo American Prepares Exit
Trump Administration Proposes Repeal of Obama‑Era Endangerment Finding, Dismantling Regulatory Basis for CO₂ Emissions Limits
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
A family has been arrested in the UK for displaying the British flag
Mel Gibson refuses to work with Robert De Niro, saying, "Keep that woke clown away from me."
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
The British propaganda channel BBC News lies again.
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
×