A British Airways (BA) cabin crew trade union won an appeal today against a legal injunction this week that had blocked a new wave of walkouts by the airline's staff.
Seeking a settlement, the Unite union said it would not strike before Monday and that "negotiation, not litigation" was the only way to avoid further walk-outs. BA is in a dispute with its cabin crew over pay as the airline tries to cut costs.
"Despite the obvious enthusiasm of colleagues here, this is not a moment for being triumphant. We shouldn't have been in this process. The case brought by BA was trivial," Unite's Derek Simpson said outside the court after the ruling.
Two out of three of Britain's top judges ruled in favour of Unite. One of them said a small infringement in the way the strike was balloted - the case for BA's injunction on Monday - should not invalidate the ballot.
BA, which is in the process of merging with Spanish airline Iberia, said in a statement it was "very disappointed", adding that it had a contingency plan to keep planes in the air and fly more than 70 per cent of customers.
The carrier is trying to save save £62.5 million a year to counter falling demand, volatile fuel prices and greater competition.
Unite said it had come to an agreement in principle with BA over its cost-cutting plans, but that the restoration of staff travel perks had not been agreed, holding up settlement of the wider dispute.
Originally the union had planned to stage four strikes from May 18th-22nd , May 24th-28th , May 30th-June 3rd, and June 5th-9th. The dispute with cabin crew over pay and conditions had already resulted in seven days of strikes in March, which cost the airline £45 million.
Reuters