Section:GDN 1N PaGe:20 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 19:30 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Friday 6 September 2019
(^20) National
Pilots’ strike
due to go
ahead after
BA rejects
union off er
Gwyn Topham
Transport correspondent
British Airways has rejected an olive
branch from the pilots’ union Balpa
to hold talks and call off next week’s
strikes , describing the off er as a “cyn-
ical” proposal that would cost the
airline an additional £50m.
Most of BA’s 4,300 pilots based at
Heathrow and Gatwick are due to go
on strike on Monday and Tuesday over
pay and conditions, for the fi rst time
in the airline’s history. BA has not con-
fi rmed the number of cancellations,
but it is expected that only a small
number of its usual 800 daily fl ights
will take off.
Balpa said it had written to BA’s chief
executive, Alex Cruz , yesterday with
a new proposal to end the stand off , in
which pilots voted overwhelmingly for
industrial action after eight months of
pay talks. BA had off ered an 11.5% deal
over three years to pilots.
The union said it would call off the
strikes on 9 and 10 September if BA
would hold meaningful talks. A further
strike is scheduled for 27 September ,
and more dates could follow.
The union’s general secretary, Brian
Strutton , said: “Our members’ resolve
is very strong and they remain very
angry with BA, but they also want to
leave no stone unturned in trying to
fi nd a resolution to their dispute.” He
said the new off er showed pilots were
“willing to be fl exible but still stand
united in getting a better deal”.
However, BA rejected the proposal
as too late and too expensive. It said:
“We remain open to constructive talks
with B alpa to resolve the pay negotia-
tions, but we do not believe the union
is acting in good faith by making an
11th-hour infl ated proposal, which
would cost an additional £50m.
“We, at BA, have acted with integrity
through many months of negotiations.
We and the union’s leaders agreed and
shook on a deal on Monday 12 August
only for the union to back track on that
agreement and return with new and
unrealistic demands.”
Strutton and Balpa have denied
shaking on a deal with the airline.
Union rules would only allow negoti-
ators to take proposals to a committee
for recommendation, and then to a
vote by pilots.
The airline continued: “Balpa has
cynically waited until we have helped
the vast majority of customers with
alternative travel arrangements, and
our planning for a strike has reached
a critical stage. Our customers need
the certainty that B alpa will call off the
strikes for good, not just for two days
next week.”
A small number of BA-operated
fl ights are due to go ahead next week,
with non-unionised pilots in manage-
ment positions in the cockpit.
BA has said it would also hire aero-
planes with pilots and crew to cover
certain departures. Codesharing
fl ights with other airlines may also
operate with bigger planes and accom-
modate some passengers.
However, most passengers due to
travel are believed to have had their
travel plans altered. The airline suf-
fered further embarrassment when
contacting some in error last month,
while customers complained of being
unable to confi rm whether their fl ight
was correctly cancelled or not.
▲ BA described Balpa’s proposal as ‘cynical’ PHOTOGRAPH: RICHARD BAKER/ALAMY
Passenger train travelled at
up to 80mph with door open
Gwyn Topham
Transport correspondent
A train travelled for 23 minutes at up
to 80mph with a carriage door open,
accident investigators have said.
During the incident, which took
place last month on a Greater Anglia
at 7.20am. The Rail Accident Investi-
gation Branch (RAIB) has conducted
a preliminary examination and said
it will publish a “safety digest” in the
coming weeks highlighting what les-
sons can be learnt.
Greater Anglia’s commercial and
customer service director, Martin
Moran, said: “Safety is our highest pri-
ority. We immediately took the train
out of service when this happened and
carried out our own investigation into
the incident. We have also carried out
checks on every single door on that
type of train that we have.”
Train doors, and who closes them,
have been a core issue in a continu-
ing dispute between train operators
and unions over the role of guards and
driver-controlled trains.
The RAIB found that poor training
and driver fatigue may have contrib-
uted to a London Underground train
leaving some doors wide open in a
separate incident last September. A
Jubilee line service with about 30 pas-
sengers went between two stations
with 10 doors open, travelling for 56
seconds at about 40mph, following a
technical fault.
service, the train travelled for about
16 miles before the driver was alerted
by a passenger. Greater Anglia said it
had immediately conducted checks on
all doors on similar trains of that type.
The train was travelling out of Lon-
don Liverpool Street to Southend in
the early morning when the driver
was told at Hockley station, in Essex,
▲ The carriage on the early-morning
Liverpool Street to Southend service
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