British Airways seems to be unimpressed by the fact that Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary at the trade union Unite has said that if a strike by BA cabin crew goes ahead it will not take place during the Easter holidays. McCluskey announced that the union wanted to avoid dates when families were most likely to be travelling together so they would be able to book their holidays with confidence. A spokesman for BA has said that he doubts such a promise will be of much comfort for all those who need to travel on dates not included in the Easter holiday calendar.

If members of BA’s 12,000 cabin crew decide to strike then they will be legally allowed to do so at some point after March 1^st. This will of course depend on whether or not Unite have ironed out the creases in their balloting system which wrecked the chance of a walkout over Christmas. The High Court ruled the strike planned for the festive season unlawful because some of the ballots cast in favour of strike action were by employees who had already taken the voluntary redundancy packages offered to them. This irregularity meant that millions of BA passengers avoided the consequences of a twelve-day walk out over the holidays.

Unite is continuing to argue with Willie Walsh, BA’s chief executive about staff cuts and pay reductions. Walsh has announced that BA will be offering training to all staff who wish to take the place of members of the airline’s cabin crew should they choose to walk out.