BA's approach to the 2010 Strikers!

BA communicated to its different stakeholders in a number of ways during the strike period. BA shareholders, in particular the large investors, were behind the BA management strategy to make cuts, so BA did not appear to suffer from shareholder pressure in this situation. However, employees (cabin crew of BA) have been the party that had lost out.

The customers have suffered hugely in these 2010 strikes because they have had to endure disruptions with their flights, which has left many BA customers upset and angry with the strikers. BA were cleverly able to generate public sympathy and have customers on their side by the way they were tactical in their approach. Matthew Moore from the Telegraph states that ‘BA’s bullish stance reflects a confidence within the company that it now holds the upper hand in the long running dispute’. This here shows that BA are sticking to what they have decided and therefore are not prepared to negotiate and by the strikers continuing to stand their ground all they are doing is causing more upset and aggravation for the customers.

Who is to blame for this, based on the face that BA had to make necessary cuts to maintain a successful business?

Below is some quotes from passengers who could not fly because of the strikes happening.

I was stuck on a plane for eight hours; we had boarded, our luggage was on, the ramp was retracted, and the ground staff decided to stage a walkout. We couldn't disembark because a license is needed to operate the ramp, we couldn't leave because the plane needs to be pushed back. Stuck for eight hours with kids throwing up, and no food thanks to Gate Gourmet. I have no sympathy for the BA ground staff who walked out illegally. There was no consideration for passengers whatsoever.
Brian Reilly, Athens, Greece

Trade unions have no place in an economy with full employment. The difficulty businesses in the South East have in finding half decent workers gives individual employees more than enough bargaining power. Three cheers for the Gate Gourmet management. British Airways must now follow their lead and take the opportunity to rid themselves of their own TGWU members.
Paul, London, UK

What is this country coming to? People go on unofficial strike ie just don't bother going to work. Ok, they may have had their reasons but everyone has responsibilities. If they don't want to go to work or don't like working for their company why don't they just resign?
Nicola, UK

I wonder if all these people who say they support the strikers would have felt the same if it was their holidays, weddings, and business journeys etc that were going down the pan. They should all be sacked.
Ken, UK

Please could you leave your comments on this issue.
Tell me what you think
BA to blame or strikers?

Thanks

The 2010 BA Strikes!!! Were BA ethical in their approach to make cutbacks on their employees?

Hiya guys, i found this story from a cabin crew member whos worked for BA for many years, it is one sided but i just want to see what you all think of it? Please could you put your comments on there, I'm interested to see what you think! Thanks xxx

'I have worked for BA for 21 years, I am not a militant person and wear my BA uniform with pride. I feel compelled to post this because I am sick of hearing nothing but crew bashing from the media. After 21 years with British Airways my salary is 21,000 pounds a year, nothing close to the 56 thousand that is being reported on the news, whereas Mr Walsh recieves the highest salary of any CEO in the airline industry not to mention his generous bonuses and share options.

British Airways is informing the press and public that 60% of flights are departing today, well let me explain why this is. British Airways operate many code share flights with other airlines, in other words, the flight is operated by another carrier with a BA flight number. British Airways is also operating a huge number of what we call "Ghost Flights" These are BA planes that are being flown without passengers or Cabin Crew to destination in order to collect passengers and bring them back to London and finally, all the BA flights operated by the wet lease aircraft are flying with a BA flight prefix so I guess with that information, BA will get many flights away today. The volenteer crew that Mr Walsh is using have not recieved the proper medical training that we recieved, infact an email was sent out by the company 2 weeks ago stating that these crew were not to deal onboard medial problems or emergencies, these should be left to the fully trained crew.

Over the past couple of years, BA have been hit very hard by enormous fines for our price fixing scandal, the Terminal 5 fiasco, incorrect fuel hedging, Cargo price fixing fines, the list goes on. These fines ammount to over 600 million pounds and contributed to our record losses. Mr Walsh has a record of destroying airlines, Aer Lingus being his legacy. He was thrown out by the Irish prime minister for selling of priceless works of art in order to keep the company affloat, only to then try and complet a hostile buy out with 2 colleagues. He was called "Nothing but a common Thief" by the Irish prime minister.

My Walsh has a history of bullying his emplyees too and BA is no exception. We are all scared by this man, we recieve nothing but a constant barage of threatening e-mails from him and his managers tellings us that if we don not report for work during this legal strike we will face severe punishment. As a cabin crew community we have offered to take a pay cut, not a pay rise as has been reported by so many media outlets. We want BA to succeed but Mr Walsh is hell bent on destroying our union, this was never about money. We have had to watch Mr Walsh destroy our company reputation by cutting corners and costs on our flights. We spend more time appologising for the lack of ammenities on our aircraft these days than acctually delivering the once world-class product that we were known for. Food and wine shortages onboard, an inflight entertainment system that was bought on the cheap and is substandard at the best of times. Please skynews, let the public know that cabin crew are not greedy money grabbing people, we know we have better terms and conditions than many of the other British airlines but we have been around longer and and offer a totally different style of service onboard our aircraft.

We are truly sorry for spoiling the travelling plans of so many hard working people but in the grand scheme of things, this is our life, we have famillies to support, mortgages to pay and financial commitments the same as so many other people. We may be spoiling the travel plans of the public for the weekend, but this at the end of the day, is our liveleyhood.
Mr Walsh must be held accountable for this strike and hopefully the share holders will see this and vote him out very soon.'

Please leave your comments guys.. will be really helpful! xxx

'Revealing a New Chapter'-LJK Communiations-CIPR Gold Award Winners

Hi everyone, this week I was given an assignment to discuss a CIPR award for Northern Ireland. I chose LJK Comunications as the company i wanted to share with my class. LJK Communications are a Public Relations company who were representing a hotel called 'The Merchant'.


The Merchant Hotel has only been around for 3 years and therefore needed a huge amount of exposure to generate interest from potential customers national and internationally. The Merchant hotel enlisted LJK Communications to come in and help them get their name out there. It was vital that LJK Communications got themselves exposed immediately, as they had just spent 16million pounds on an extention for the hotel itself, building a Spa, Roof Top Garden Terrace and a Jazz Bar.


LJK communications produced a 12 month media relations campaign, using every form of media possible!
From print media right through to broadcast media.
  

LJK Communications developed a detailed 12 month media relations campaign that

included a vast range of creative PR activities that would continually drive international,

national and regional coverage throughout the year. Highly tailored messaging,

reflecting key aspects of the hotel was composed and delivered via a range of diverse PR

tactics which included:

          Media, VIP and Ministerial launch events Tailored news releases announcing key developments for

          each section

          Month-on-month photo-calls and creative PR photographyA media reviews programme, incorporating hotel, restaurant and cocktail bar reviews
A seasonal features programme• Media piggybacking of key national calendar dates, ranging from ValentinesRecipe features from the Head Chef 
Quirky media deskdrops•
Timely, high profile publicity stunts•
Engaging competitions
People profiles from proprietor to concierge
Local ‘Hero’ campaigns around key international awards
Online PR incorporating tightly controlled social media activities and features on key online broadcast channelsLJK Communicatiosn won the Gold CIPR award for 2010 for best use of media relations and the reason why they won it was for the above campaign they carried out for The Merchant Hotel. They always generated 1.2 Million pounds for the hotel by doing this campaign. LJK received 100% positive coverage which is fantastic, as we all know how much journalists love to critise good work and 100 journalists stayed at the hotel through out the 12 months.

What i would like to know is if you think this was a great campaign and if there is anything that you could recommened or think they may of missed out? What are your thoughts girls and boy :)

xxxxxJadexxxxx

why do us students go on nights out when we know we have to be up for 8am the next morning?