Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 10
Trend:
A two-day strike by some of British Airways’ cabin staff may disrupt flights at Heathrow airport on Jan. 10-11, BBC News reported.
The strike, by 2,900 members of the Unite trade union, is in pursuit of higher pay for members of the so-called "mixed fleet".
Those are staff that has been recruited by British Airways since 2011, and is paid what the union calls "poverty wages".
The airline says most flights from Heathrow will not be affected, nor will any flights from Gatwick and London City airports.
British Airways created the mixed fleet of cabin staff in the wake of a bitter and long-running dispute over pay and conditions for all cabin staff that ran from 2009 to 2011.
The mixed fleet staff employed since then, currently about 4,500-strong, is on inferior pay and conditions to that cabin staff which was recruited in previous years.
They fly only out of Heathrow, and on both short-haul and long-haul routes, but not in the same planes as colleagues on the legacy conditions of employment.
Unite complains that despite the airline advertising that the mixed fleet staff is paid between 21,000 and 25,000 British pounds per year, in reality its earnings are far lower.