The Bella Centre grows crowded and tense

INSIDE the Bella Centre, the second week of talks feels subtly different from the first. Outside, it is very different indeed. In both cases, the difference is more people. Inside, that just means crowding; outside it means long queues of people failing to get in. ...

Christmas woes for British Airways, even though a court orders that a strike is cancelled

THERE was a time, a decade ago, when British Airways (BA) could credibly claim to be “the world’s favourite airline”, as its posters proudly affirmed. Not any more. And certainly not to those passengers who were hastily booking alternatives to their BA flights this week as the threat of a long strike over Christmas loomed. The walkout was averted on Thursday December 17th, but the underlying problems that led to the standoff remained unresolved. Compounding the woe came news of a series of two-day strikes at Eurostar, the passenger-train service under the English Channel, and the collapse of Flyglobespan, a Scottish airline.

The dispute at BA centres on its desire to cut costs by reducing cabin staff on most flights and limiting wage increases. The airline’s pilots and engineers have already accepted austerity measures; cabin staff, notified of the proposed changes in July, are less inclined to compromise (though some have taken voluntary redundancy). On December 14th Unite, the union which represents almost all of the company’s 13,500 cabin staff, said they had voted overwhelmingly to strike. ...