BLOG: Is BA's strike just the next chapter of a drawn-out suicide note?

BA's bosses will despair, of course, but they know that the public know that the economics of the airline industry have been re-written by the onset of budget carriers such as Ryanair. The public understand that legacy agreements cut with the unions just aren't economical in the new environment and that BA's staff must adjust.

At a time when workers in every industry are having to live with the new realities of a deep recession, the truculence of BA's staff will impress few among the travelling public.
To be fair to BA's cabin crew, of course, their outgoings and long-term commitments, such as mortgages, will have expanded in line with their incomes - just as ours do. So to ask them to take cuts in pay and expect them to agree without a whimper is, perhaps, a tad unrealistic.
It now looks like there'll be a period of megaphone diplomacy, with the Unite union lined up against management via the media to argue who has the fairer starting point.
The losers, of course, will be BA's customers and then its shareholders. And with a £3.7bn deficit in the company's pension fund there seems little room for BA but to continue to push for restructuring.
Failure to do so may cost it more than its reputation, of course: it may cost the airline.

Dougal Paver is managing director of Paver Smith in Liverpool