These strikes have been planned in advance to do the worst possible damage to BA and its customers during the summer months.Having enjoyed his own (well timed?) holiday, free from industrial action, he now wishes to disrupt the holidays of many thousands of working class families - as well as the thousands of football supporters who may no longer feel certain that they will be going to South Africa this summer.
If Woodley wins his union's appeal today, then we will be going backwards in terms of industrial relations. I remember the last time the unions had their feet firmly pressed to the throat, not just of a single company, but the whole nation - and it was not a pretty sight.
We are of course a long way away from the 1970s; but only because Thatcher came to power in the 1980s and changed industrial relations laws. I can remember union shop stewards deciding, under closed shop agreements, who an employer could employ; I can remember secondary picketing, which allowed a whole industry to be brought to a standstill over a single dispute in a particular factory; and worst of all, I can remember Woodley's predecessors marching up Downing Street to dictate terms to the then Labour government.
So you see the trade unions did have the power, but they abused it. The trade union laws we have in place today are here because of those past abuses; abuses that nearly turned this country into a failed state. Whatever one may think of Margaret Thatcher, she had the strength of will to pursue the coarse she took against the abuse of union power - a coarse which none of her predecessors had the will to do.
It seems to me that Tony Woodley yearns for those days when the trade union movement could park their tanks on the prime ministers lawn, to paraphrase Harold Wilson; and "beer and sandwiches" became the journalist's favourite expression to describe Generalissimos Vic Feather and Jack Jones' arrival at No10.
The UNITE union leadership must realise that the past is the past. "History", to quote Marx, "repeats itself; first as tragedy, then as farce". The sooner Tony Woodley and his union understands this, then the sooner BA can make the changes needed to continue in a highly competitive market. By continuing this action, the union will further weaken BA to such an extent that Willie Walsh may have to take further action against staff in order to remain a profitable business.
But whatever happens, both Tony Woodley and Willie Walsh, will come out of this having made very little financial sacrifice. They will each be given a generous pension, or, if the union was to have its way, Willie would also receive a generous golden handshake upon his leaving. The only people who stand to be worse of than they are now, are the cabin crews themselves. Defeat for them leads only to the dole queue and unpayable mortgages.
The Americans have a phrase, "suck it up", and this is what, in these economic times, is required. For a union to tell its members otherwise is deceitful. British Airways is acting like a modern business. Willie Walsh is not a 19th century mill owner, as Tony Woodley would like to portray him, but a business man who wants to see his company through difficult times. If he has to make changes to pay and practices that, if left as they are, will make BA unprofitable and uncompetitive, then, for sake of the people who are left, they must be made.
The union must realise that nationalisation, which I know Woodley would like to see, is no longer a possibility. I believe that we should have a national carrier like BA , but not on any terms. BA, like any other company must adapt to the economic currents; and the sooner Woodley, I was about to say retires, but there is worse to come. For there is another generation of headbangers waiting in the wings.
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