British Airways cabin crew to go on strike next week in pay dispute

British Airways cabin crew based at London’s Heathrow airport are to go on strike next week in a row over “poverty pay” at the airline.

About 2,500 members of BA’s so-called “mixed fleet” – which is predominantly made up of younger and lower-paid cabin crew – will walkout for 48 hours from next Tuesday after the company’s latest offer was rejected.

BA said it would “plan to ensure that all our customers travel to their destinations” despite the strike, adding that it would publish details of its contingency plans on Friday. Some flights are expected to be cancelled. The mixed fleet accounts for about 15 per cent of BA’s total cabin crew.

A two-day walkout scheduled for Christmas was suspended after talks between the Unite union and the airline.

But after the union members again rejected the offer, Unite called a strike before the mandate from a ballot expires, a deadline the union said the airline refused to extend.

Unite accused BA of “needlessly seeking conflict”. It said the airline was blocking meaningful talks and was seeking to unpick the progress made in talks at the conciliation service Acas before Christmas.

Unite national officer Oliver Richardson said: “British Airways is needlessly provoking strike action by refusing to extend the mandate of the strike ballot and allow meaningful talks to take place.