Legal Technicality

When a smart lawyer goes into the defence of his client on a 'legal technicality' you know then the defence is in trouble, and they have no real hard evidence to use which will help his client. In other words they look for a loophole. Nothing to do with the crime, but a point of law. When a criminal gets off under these circumstances, I wonder about the law, but also about the integrity of the so called lawyers!


And so, we hear today that BA has lost its appeal on the validity of the striking Unite workers who form the British Airways Cabin Crews. BA, and for this we can safely and accurately substitute the chairman Willie Walsh, hung their defence on a legal technicality, a point of law. Nothing to do with the dispute which separates the two warring sides, but a court case to decide about 11 spoiled voting papers. Willie Walsh took the union to court over 11 spoiled papers!


I have not usually been on the side of the usual union led strikes, but in this case, BA lost it themselves, and their credibility with it. It becomes patently clear that the one and possibly only thing in Walsh's mind is to bring down the union. The trouble is, in using this kind of tactic, he has lost the fight, and lost any moral high ground he thought he had.


There are no winners in this dispute, but I think it has come to the time for Willie Walsh to step down, and do the only decent thing he can. He hasn't done many decent things up until now, so this is his time. In the battle for the hearts, minds and support of the people of the country, and of the employees he is supposed to have in his care, the quicker he gets off his high horse, and goes into early retirement, the better. But don't worry about his future. It is secure. He will enjoy a very large pension, a very golden handshake, and possibly another top job where he can upset even more employees. Who said it was fair?

British Airways, Unite and Common Sense

And so it happened. The BA strike by Unite's Cabin Staff was inevitable, even to the casual observer. Where did the common sense go? BA cabin crews are well paid by all other aviation standards. Up to twice the pay of others doing the same job. They get serious perks, like free travel once per year for them, and their family, anywhere in the world that BA has a service. Why would anyone want to jeopardise that? Those Unite cabin crew strikers just forfeited that terrific perk! Why? Are the Unite members just playing follow the leader? 


When the talks broke down, just hours before the strike was due to happen, both Tony Woodley of Unite, and Willie Walsh, BA CEO, came out to talk to the media gathered from around the world. They both 'regretted' the strike. They both said they were 'ready to talk at anytime, and any place' but there was no more talking. Someone wasn't telling the whole truth. They both sounded as if they had tried everything to avert the strike, but that can't be true. Both men, and those behind them, have a lot to lose, like reputation. It has become more than a money thing now. It is a stand-off between two men. Two opposing personalities, who sound so much alike, but are poles apart.


Reminds me of the school playground again. Everything (well almost everything) can be reduced to human nature's basic principles. These men are having a playground fight, and they are both at the point of throwing the toys out of the pram, or in this case grounding the airline, possibly resulting in permanent harm to the thing they say they are trying to protect. Again, someone is not telling the whole truth. BA is losing money, and both say theirs is the only way to make it more profitable. One of them is not telling the whole truth.


I think it boils down to this. Willie Walsh wants cuts to let his company make MORE money. Tony Woodley wants his members to get MORE money, but without the same cutbacks. I think the key is the word MORE. One wants more for his shareholders, the other wants more for his members, and NEITHER wants to meet halfway. That would mean a climbdown for one of them, with the humiliation it would bring. It's basic human nature, and the company can go to the wall, for the sake of a man's reputation.


Another way to look at the word MORE is to think of it as GREED! It used to be said that this was the underlying principal of the success of the 'free enterprise' system. Not any more. Apparently the union Unite have adopted this strategy for their own too. Isn't greed one of the deadly sins? Yes I thought so. In the words of the old Scot in the TV series 'Dad's Army', 'Doomed, we're a' doomed laddie'! How true.