British Airways cabin crew are to vote on a proposal to end the year-long dispute with the airline.
A Unite spokeswoman was quoted as saying this morning: “There will be a consultative ballot on the offer and we’re working to get this underway as soon as practically possible.”
The head of Unite’s cabin crew branch BASSA told members in an email that BA had made enough changes to an earlier offer to warrant a ballot to see if it was acceptable.
“It is now up to you, if you vote against the offer the dispute goes on, if you vote to accept the dispute is over,” BASSA secretary Duncan Holley said.
The potential breakthrough development came the day after BA chief executive told the Travel Convention in Malta that he blamed the Unite union for failing to reach an agreement in the long-running row.
The airline proposes to run a full service at Gatwick and London City airports and all its long-haul flights at Heathrow if another strike were to go ahead.
While he Walsh said that he hoped an agreement could be reached, the airline is planning “for all eventualities” and a “very robust” contingency programme is in place.