Union considers BA dispute offer

。 11 May 2011 Last updated at 21:11 ET  The bitter dispute between the Unite union and British Airways has been continuing since 2009 Union members are meeting later to consider an offer which could end the long-running dispute between British Airways and some cabin crew.

The BBC has learned Unite union leaders are said to be "content" with what has been negotiated during talks with BA.

If those at the Heathrow meeting back the offer, a formal ballot of union members could be held within weeks.

This dispute began in 2009 over cost cutting but became bogged down over the loss of travel perks to striking staff.

Staffing levels

It has resulted in travel chaos for hundreds of thousands of passengers with the bill for the disruption caused to BA estimated to be ￡150m.

Continue reading the main story John Moylan Industry correspondent, BBC News

This has been one of the most bitter and prolonged industrial disputes of recent years.

It involved four strike ballots, led to 22 days of strike action and disrupted the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. It cost BA about ￡150m.

But a change of personnel at the top of both BA and the Unite union gave fresh impetus to resolving the row. Talks got under way in March, away from the glare of publicity.

The new deal will cover disciplinary action that some staff suffered during the strike and the issue of the removal of travel perks to those that went on strike.

It should also lift the threat of any further disruption to BA flights this summer.

However, after 22 days of strikes over the past 18 months, hopes have been raised that an end to the row is in sight.

Negotiations between the two sides resumed in March, when cabin crew voted in favour of a further round of industrial action, and have been going on for weeks.

The union held back from announcing strike dates pending the talks.

A spokesman for the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association - a branch of Unite - confirmed that "talks have now concluded to the satisfaction of both parties".

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, who has held talks with BA chief executive Keith Williams, will address a mass meeting of union members and the union leadership is expected to recommend they accept the offer.

If they do, a formal ballot will be held, with the result expected in July. This raises the prospect of BA flights being free from disruption through summer.

The dispute started in November 2009 as a row about staffing levels on some long-haul flights. BA reduced the number of cabin crew on long-haul flights from 15 to 14 and introduced a two-year pay freeze from 2010.

Unite said this would hit passenger service and affect the earnings and career prospects of cabin crew.

But the union's demands shifted to the reinstatement of some workers sacked during industrial action and the decision, affecting about 7,000 Unite members, to take away travel perks from striking staff.

Leadership changes

Progress is thought to have been made on those two issues, which were the main sticking points, and reports suggest the proposed deal would also cover union representation and pay.

Former British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh became the focus of the anger of many union members during the dispute.

Mr Walsh has since moved on to head the company formed by the merger of BA and the Spanish carrier Iberia, International Airlines Group, and was succeeded by Mr Williams.

Mr McCluskey was elected in Novemebr 2010 to succeed former joint general secretaries Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson.

Thomson Reuters and Union Agree on Tentative Contract

The settlement, covering 430 Guild members, also calls for $7.6 million in cash payments over the three years, largely to cover lost pay since the contract expired in February 2009. That will amount to roughly $17,000 per full-time worker, Guild officials said, with some money going to employees who have left the company.

The deal also settles a complaint that the National Labor Relations Board had said it would file against the company’s news division on numerous issues, among them accusations that it violated a reporter’s right to discuss working conditions when a supervisor reprimanded her for posting a Twitter message that said, “One way to make this the best place to work is to deal honestly with Guild members.”

The author of the post, Deborah Zabarenko, the agency’s environmental reporter in Washington and the head of the Newspaper Guild at Reuters, had sent that message to a company Twitter address after a manager had asked employees to send postings about how to make Reuters the best place to work.

As part of the settlement, which the Guild announced, Thomson Reuters has agreed to negotiate a new social media policy, one that would include language that will protect employees’ speech and right to engage in other concerted activity about working conditions, as provided under federal law.

Stephen J. Adler, Reuters’ new editor in chief, said, “This settlement will allow us to focus all our efforts on producing excellent journalism, which is what we all came here to do.”

In a point sought by management, the deal calls for a guaranteed pool of money for merit raises that is equal to 1 percent of payroll in the contract’s first year. In the subsequent two years, management will use a discretionary merit pay pool for Guild members that is equal to the pool for nonunion employees.

Bill O’Meara, president of the New York Newspaper Guild, said the agreement was reached after a 21-hour negotiating session, aided by a federal mediator. He said a few details remained to be worked out, adding that there would be a ratification vote within 45 days.

He praised Reuters’ management team, saying the arrival of Mr. Adler and Stuart Karle, the new editorial chief operating officer, had made a huge difference in the long-stalled labor talks.

“They changed the whole tone of the negotiations,” Mr. O’Meara said. “They wanted to get it done. Two years of battling was capped in two days of negotiations.”

The settlement provides more flexibility in scheduling workers at short notice — to help deal with large, breaking stories and competitive pressures.

In addition, the company would increase its dollar-for-dollar match for 401(k) accounts to 6 percent of an employee’s pay, up from 4 percent. Moreover, Guild members would pay 18 percent of the cost of health insurance premiums in the contract’s first year, 20 percent in the second year and 22 percent in the third year.

 

Airport Screeners Need Runoff to Pick a Union

 

Federal officials said 8,369 security screeners, who are employees of the Transportation Security Administration, had voted to join the American Federation of Government Employees, while 8,095 had voted to join the National Treasury Employees Union. The vote against unionizing was 3,111.

Since none of the three choices received a majority, the screeners will choose between the two unions in a runoff election that will omit the option of not unionizing. The winning union will represent the nation’s 44,000 T.S.A. screeners in contract negotiations. The runoff will be held over the next two months.

Labor leaders were pleased that 84 percent of the screeners who voted favored a union, saying it showed that many government employees still wanted to bargain collectively, even when public employees are on the defensive in places like Wisconsin and Ohio, where state leaders have largely curtailed the right of public sector unions to bargain.

Throughout the campaign, the federation of government employees insisted it had an advantage because 12,000 screeners already belong to that union, even though they did not have the ability to bargain until recently. But the Treasury employees’ union predicted that it would win because it already represented many Customs and Border Protection employees who work at airports with the screeners. The leaders of both unions voiced confidence they would win the runoff.

The federation of government employees says screeners should vote for it because it emphasizes bottom-up unionism and belongs to the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation’s main labor federation, while the Treasury employees union says it warrants support because it represents professionals and provides excellent legal support.

The results of the vote were announced by the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which conducted the six-week election. Each airport screener was given a personal identification number, which allowed voting by computer or telephone.

Until recently screeners did not have a right to bargain collectively. But in February, the T.S.A.’s administrator, John S. Pistole, reversed the position of his Republican predecessor and gave employees the ability to bargain collectively.

Mr. Pistole said screeners could bargain over policies on shifts, dress code, break time and awards. But the union could not negotiate wages, benefits, job qualifications, discipline standards or anything related to national security. He also said the agency’s workers would not be allowed to strike or engage in a slowdown and would be fired for doing so.

Many Republican leaders have said that allowing screeners to bargain collectively would jeopardize national security, warning that strikes and work slowdowns could cripple airports and result in insufficient security checks.

After the vote results were announced, Mr. Pistole said, “The safety of the traveling public remains our top priority, and I have made clear we will not negotiate on security.”

T.S.A. officials say unionization will improve screeners’ morale and will in turn improve productivity and service to the public.