British Airways takes legal action to avert strike

British Airways has announced that it is launching legal action in a bid to avoid the planned industrial action by cabin crew staff belonging to the Unite union.

Workers voted in favour of a strike running from December 22nd to January 2nd, which would cause severe disruption to the airline's Christmas and New Year schedules.

However, British Airways claims that it found irregularities in Unite's strike ballot which may render the vote invalid.

The union was given until 14:00 today (December 15th) to call off the industrial action but failed to do so, meaning the airline is now seeking a legal injunction to prevent the strike.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways, said the company does not want to see "a million Christmases ruined".

"We are absolutely determined to do whatever we can to protect our customers from this appalling, unjustified decision from Unite," he added.

"Unite was told about the problems with its ballot on Friday. Yet it cynically went ahead with an extreme, highly publicised threat to our customers and our business in the knowledge that it might not be able to carry it out."

Posted by Kate, 15 December 2009 17:50

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