As reported yesterday, British Airways and its cabin crew union Unite have agreed terms to end three years of industrial action which have cost the airline £150m ($245m) to date from 22 days of strikes, although the settlement package is still to be ratified when it is put to a ballot of the 10,000 members.

It is understood that the agreement includes returning travel concessions to crew, as well as guaranteeing a new phased pay increase of around 7.5% over two years, although the details are sketchy at present.

In a short statement released yesterday, BA management said: “On behalf of our customers, we are very pleased the threat of industrial action has been lifted and that we have reached a point where we can put this dispute behind us.

‘COST SAVINGS CHANGES ARE PERMANENT’
“Our agreement with Unite involves acknowledgement by the union that the cost-saving structural changes we have made in cabin crew operations are permanent. We have also agreed changes that will modernise our crew industrial relations and help ensure that this kind of dispute cannot occur again.

“British Airways cabin crew are rightly renowned for their professionalism and skills. Our airline has a great future, and everyone within it intends to move forward together.”

For its part, the Unite Union’s General Secretary Len McCluskey said: “We always said that this dispute could only be settled by negotiation, not by confrontation or litigation. And so it has proved. 

UNION PRAISES CREW’S ‘DETERMINATION’
“We are delighted to have reached an agreement which I believe recognises the rights and dignity of cabin crew as well as the commercial requirements of the company. This agreement will allow us to go forward in partnership together to strengthen this great British company – good news for BA, its employees and its customers alike.

“I am particularly pleased that staff travel concessions will be restored in full with the signing of the agreement and the implementation of the new structure for working together that we have negotiated. A customer-oriented business can only succeed with all its employees valued and respected.

“And above all I would like to pay tribute to Unite’s BA cabin crew members. Their resilience, discipline and determination to be treated properly has been an inspiration to all who have worked alongside them in this dispute and has been a model of twenty-first century trade unionism. They deserve this agreement and the prosperous future at British Airways I hope it secures.”