Wednesday - March 17, 2010

British Airways strike could go global as Unite enlists support of U.S. union Teamsters

About a week or ten days ago it was announced that the post office had caved in to postal union demands, and so the PO will work less hours but will also get a raise.  It’s feared that junk mail deliveries may increase.  That’s okay. We don’t get much mail anyway. Except it becomes a pain in the butt having to shred addresses and separate the trash. But never mind. This could be worse yet.  The union representing airline workers, UNITE, is digging in it’s heels as the heels who head the union and fund the party in power are about to bring down England’s national airline.  BA is hemorrhaging money and has been plagued for some time with reports about bad service etc.  So this doesn’t help.  In fact, I was considering British Airways because of an unusual flight schedule that might have suited us well.  But with this going on, forget that.  I won’t chance it and I can’t imagine too many folks seeing all this buying tickets in this climate.

It looks now as though the evil bastards want to include the unions in the USA.  Can they enlist a foreign union in another country to screw thing up there?

EVIL BLOODSUCKING UNION BAT

* Meeting with U.S. Teamsters union today
* British tourists risk being stranded in Caribbean
* Union claims ‘fast-tracked’ volunteers risk safety

By Tim Shipman

Unite leaders will today meet with a U.S. union as they dramatically escalate the British Airways strike.

Unite is to hold talks with Teamsters, one of the overseas unions to offer its support for their controversial walkout due to start in days.

It has also enlisted unions in Germany, Spain and Italy to an international campaign of militancy that could cause chaos at airports around the world.

Union sources say action from overseas unions could make it impossible to clean, service and refuel BA planes.

This would undermine attempts by BA to keep aircraft in the skies and lead to more misery for the public, who already face massive disruption to flights over Easter.

Teamsters, which has 1.4million members, said last night: ‘We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters at Unite who are fighting for a fair contract at British Airways.

‘The Teamsters are an active member of the International Transport Workers Federation. ITF affiliates around the world are mobilising to support British Airways workers in their fight for passenger safety and worker respect.’

The move will raise the stakes for Gordon Brown, who yesterday failed for a fourth day to persuade Unite to abandon the strike.

A BA spokesman said: ‘It is sad to see Unite seeking backing from trade unions overseas to support its unjustified strike against an iconic British brand.

Shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said the union was ‘hell-bent’ on causing maximum disruption for travellers.

She said: ‘Unite should not be striking at all and trying to spread the dispute to other countries is even more irresponsible.’

Unite has also warned that BA are ‘rushing through’ volunteer staff to work as cabin crew to help break the strike.

Click evil bat for the rest of the article.

Posted by peiper     on 03/17/2010 at 05:21 AM   
Filed Under: • UK • Unions-Labor • USA •  
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