‘The exact opposite of what our great nation stands for’

Following the shock news of BA sacking 12,000 staff a concerned BA staff and Unite member writes to their MP:

I contact you as an extremely concerned member of your constituency and as a UK citizen.

I have worked for British Airways as cabin crew for 22 years and have played my small part in turning the company into an extremely profitable company employing over 42,000 people.

This is a company that posted profits last year of over £3.2 bn. A company sitting on over £9bn worth of reserves. A Boss who paid himself £3.2m. A Chief Executive who increased his pay last year from £830,000 to over £1.36m. Not to mention the millions of pounds worth of share bonuses collected.

This is a company that only a few weeks ago sent an internal email urging pilots and cabin crew to come into work and help repatriate thousands of UK citizens despite the chronic lack of on-board sanitiser/gloves and PPE. Hard working people who were rightly concerned about bringing back the virus to their young families back home.

A company rallying call stating that we are all in this together- a team effort! Re-assuring words from a British Flag Carrier.

A company that uses the word British in its name and flies the Union flag on its tail fins.

A company that would stand strong in the face of the threat of coronavirus. A company that would mirror the strength and fortitude of a nation battling to control this life threatening disease.

A company that gratefully accepted the governments Furlough Scheme and a company that would put future market dominance and shareholder profits below that of helping and supporting the very people that helped the company become a success in the first place.

How wrong we all were!

British Airways announce, without any prior warning, that they are going to make up to 12,000 loyal workers redundant- during the very furlough period that the government had designed to protect and steady the economy. A move designed to enable British Airways to decimate its industry rivals survival at the expense of loyal British workers without having to take a government bailout which would dilute its control and future profits and dividend payouts.

We all know that once coronavirus is beaten and controlled and the skies are open again that British Airways will once again be posting profits upwards of 3bn and paying its Executives hundreds of thousands of pounds in remuneration.

We will look back and see that 12,000 UK jobs were sacrificed so the few could reap the benefits.

This would be a national scandal and a stain on the UK’s fight against coronavirus and the exact opposite of what our great nation stands for. I implore you to raise this issue in Parliament and put a stop to this unlawful and immoral attack on hard working people.

By a concerned Unite member and BA staff