British Airways cabin crew have decided not to strike over the Easter holiday period, even if staff do decide to walk out at some point after March 1 following a new ballot for industrial action.
The union last month said it would move to a new ballot after a planned 12-day strike over Christmas was ruled unlawful.
'If industrial action receives the required mandate from the members and strike action is made necessary by continuing management intransigence, we will not call such action over the Easter holiday period,' Len McCluskey, Unite's assistant general secretary said today.
The Unite union will open a strike ballot for BA cabin crew on January 25 after talks with the airline failed to secure a deal on changes to working conditions. The ballot closes on Febuary 22. The Easter holiday this year centres on the first week of April.
'According to Unite's ballot timetable, it is threatening the travel plans of families and business people from March 1. Assurances about an unspecified Easter holiday period will be of little comfort to them,' BA said.
Many BA staff had said that the duration of the planned Christmas strike was excessive and that they did not want to disrupt the public's travel plans too much.
The new strike vote is expected to take about a month and, if the almost 13,000 British Airways cabin crew affiliated to Unite agree to strike, a walkout could go ahead from the beginning of March, Unite said on Monday.
BA wants three quarters of its crew to accept pay rises of 2 to 7% this year and a pay freeze in 2010, and for 3,000 staff to switch to part-time working, along with a reduction in onboard crewing levels from 15 to 14 on long-haul flights from London's Heathrow airport.
