Unite has called on British Airways to withdraw its plan to cut up to 12,000 jobs and instead work with the union and government to come up with a solution to secure the longterm future of UK aviation.
The trade union has written to chancellor Rishi Sunak and transport secretary Grant Shapps setting out what steps it believes need to be taken to keep the aviation industry afloat in the long term.
It follows the union’s pledge to challenge BA’s parent International Airlines Group to make largescale redundancies from the airline’s 42,000-strong workforce in the face of the coronavirus travel crisis.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey called the redundancies planned by BA as “unlawful and immoral” and said they would put the whole of the UK aviation sector in danger.
The union said the decision to cut jobs undermined the work that Unite and the industry had been undertaking to secure a financial package and strategy for the entire sector.
It warned that the scale of the job losses – around a quarter of the airline’s workforce – would make the aviation sector “extremely unstable” and put thousands more jobs at risk nationwide, not just at BA.
McCluskey said: “It is unlawful because they are denying these workers the meaningful consultation that the law and common decency says that they are owed.
“It is immoral because BA has been taking taxpayers’ money in recent weeks, money supplied on the proviso that the company put the workers on furlough while the industry reshaped.
“Instead, BA has taken a unilateral and selfish action that could imperil an already very fragile aviation industry – and so a great many jobs – in this country.
“UK taxpayers have not handed over their money to BA for it to embark on an opportunistic course of slashing jobs, conditions and wages, and potentially jeopardising jobs right across aviation sector.
“BA built its reputation on being the ‘world’s favourite airline’ but by pursing this needlessly drastic course it risks becoming better known as the destroyer of UK jobs and aviation.
“We say to BA that there is a better way forward for both it and the industry. We urge it to think again.
“I therefore call on BA to honour the law, remove this threat of redundancy today and join with us to work with the government and aviation industry to deliver the rescue package so desperately needed by the whole sector.”
