British Airways Christmas strike: what they’re saying

On the evidence of Monday's strike ballot, in which British Airways staff voted 9-1 in favour of industrial action on a turnout of 80 per cent, relations between the airline's management and the cabin crew union Unite have sunk to a new low.

Talks between the union and BA scheduled for this afternoon are far from guaranteed to save Christmas for the 900,000 passengers who face a 12-day festive strike - although legal action by BA may yet save them. But whose fault is this particularly disruptive strike, which starts on December 22?

This is an airline which has lost £1bn over two years, and must somehow find the means to muster a capital injection into its pension deficit of £3.7bn in order to keep next year's planned merger with Iberia on track. The last thing BA needs is a strike that will cost millions of pounds, but the company's chief executive Willie Walsh is adamant that £140 million in savings have to be made by reducing cabin crew numbers by 1,700.

Since privatisation in 1987, a succession of bosses has put off confronting BA's staff over their relatively high pay in a generally poorly paid industry. In the 1990s, financial success made facing down the unionised workforce seem unnecessary. Bob Ayling is widely believed to have lost his job as chief executive because he provoked a cabin crew walkout in 1997.

Today, average pay for BA cabin crew is £29,000, according to the Civil Aviation Authority, compared with £20,200 at EasyJet and just £14,400 at Virgin Atlantic.

Back in June, relations between Willie Walsh and his 40,000-strong workforce seemed almost rosy. Walsh said he would forgo a month's salary in order to help offset record losses and encouraged staff to do the same. The company claimed that 7,000 workers agreed to take unpaid leave, work part-time or carry out unpaid work, saving the company up to £10 million.

That looks like little more than a publicity stunt now, but the story does tally with what staff are saying. Namely that, considering economic realities, they can live with a pay freeze: it's the removal of one or two cabin crew from every flight and the inevitable reduction in customer service they object to.

This morning, with Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, admitting that the 12-day Christmas strike was "probably over the top", and anti-cabin crew opinion getting hostile on Facebook and Twitter, Walsh was hoping for an injunction to at least delay the strike until after Christmas.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:

Leader, the Times: "In the name of protecting its members the trade union Unite, by this unjustifiable and wildly impractical action, is in fact abandoning them. BA is a company in dire financial straits. The jobs that Unite claims to be protecting could very well soon be under more severe threat than a change to working practices. This is more than a foolish and mean-spirited strike. It is an act of self-sabotage."

Leader, the Guardian: BA cabin crew are quite right to fight to protect their conditions, which are under serious threat. That was the case even before the recession; the aviation industry has expanded rapidly over the past few years and working conditions on many new budget carriers are, frankly, poor. This is a classic race to the bottom, and few workers win those.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways: "Unite's decision to ruin Christmas for a million of our customers was one of the most shocking announcements I have heard in my 30 years in the aviation industry. Whatever Unite may feel about its case, inflicting such distress on so many individuals of all ages at this emotional time of year is surely an unacceptable way of pursuing it."

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite: "It was the decision of the negotiating team in BA. That's their judgement of what's needed to bring sense to this. It's probably over the top. What I would urge people to do is to get on to BA and tell them - 'negotiate'."

Senior British Airways cabin crew member, quoted in the Times: "A lot of the votes are protest votes at the imposition of working practices. No one wants a strike. No one minds a pay freeze, but just to take crew members from the crews is too much. We are very customer-focused... it is not like EasyJet."

Gordon Brown, prime minister: "I am very worried about this... the different sides in this dispute have got to look outwards and not inwards, they have got to think of the passengers that they serve, they have got to think about the future of their company."

Theresa Villiers, shadow transport secretary: "[Cabin crew unions should] wake up to the realities of the 21st century aviation industry and the intense competitive pressure BA faces from no frills airlines with much more modern working practices."Gregor Gall, professor of industrial relations, the Guardian: "What about banking on the government to step in? The sight of mass passenger chaos and queues at the country's main airports in the event of a strike might just be enough to get the kind of intervention Unite seeks. Any party seeking election next year might want to show how it can smoothly deal with tricky situations as an advert for its management skills."

Richard Kirk, Facebook group, "Support BA Cabin Crew!": "If you strike for 12 days, BA will go under. That's not my opinion, it's a fact. The Government won't bail BA out, they'll just make Virgin the flag carrier. This isn't the Seventies, unions are no longer the champions of the people, they're outdated and incredibly unpopular."

jennyt3031, Twitter: "I hate EasyJet - British Airways - you've forced me - I will never forgive you." ·