The British Airways Strikes Effects on Employee Motivation

On October 22nd, 2001, the Industrial dispute between QANTAS and its employees was initiated with the offering of a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. This proposed an 18-month wage freeze for employees plus a sliding scale profit share scheme. Ten out of twelve unions under QANTAS accepted the terms of the agreement, barring the unions of manufacturing employees (AWU and AMWU). They were holding out for a 4-6% pay rise. On the 8th May 2002, some ten months later, the dispute was resolved when QANTAS agreed to an across the board 6% pay increase. This essay provides an in-depth analysis into the dispute, including causes, the resolution process, the role of stakeholders, and costs and benefits for all concerned.

A union is an organization of workers who join together in order to have a voice in improving their jobs and the quality of work within the organization. In many occasions, unions help employees of an organization negotiate pay, benefits, flexible hours and other work conditions that may arise. Unions have a role because some degree of conflict is inevitable between workers and management (Noe, 2003). In this paper, I will be discussing the impact of unions and labor relations within an organization.

Its importance role of providing a platform for unions to negotiate and bargain with their respective airlines has minimized or prevented the extent of the damages strikes have on the airline industry. Strikes, such as the one by ALPA, have been proven to be disastrous with regard to public interest. RLA’s role cannot be taken lightly as an absence of such an act would be extremely detrimental to the airline industry and ultimately, United States’ commerce.

The issues between the union and the Magic Carpet Airlines are that the airlines do not pay their flight attendants duty rig pay, there is no job security, and they weren’t able to use their sick leave when they were sick. They did not agree with the way they had to give a five day notice to swap routes with other Magic Carpet Airlines flight attendants. Their major concerns were their direct wages, they wanted to be paid more and have duty rig, and have job security. These concerns were all determined by surveys that were mailed out to each of the union members, and flight attendants voicing their concerns.

WestJet is facing an urgent problem. The pilots’ contract expires in two weeks’ time and the pilots are unhappy with the offer that has been presented. This has created conflict between management and the pilots as the pilots feel that too many things are being taken away. If a quick agreement is not reached, flights would be grounded, which would impact the bottom line and negatively affect culture. A collaborating approach will need to be applied in order to come to a swift resolution.

The airline industry has been divided into labor unions which include several types of unions such as the Flight Attendants' Unions, the Machinists' Unions, and the Pilots' Unions. The majority of the employees are part of such unions which has led to an increase in labor costs for the entire airline industry. TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS Fuel efficiency is increasing. Aircrafts that are more fuel efficient are being developed and the engines are being redesigned to cater to this change.

Management can play a vital role in shaping their workplaces. A manager can invoke increases in co-operation and harmony amongst themselves and workers by addressing key issues that affect both groups. Management can facilitate this, for instance, by implementing plans that attempt to eliminate the issues that many workers face day-to-day such as monotony and fatigue (which have negative effects on productivity). Managers can reduce fatigue and monotony with job rotation and job enlargement, for example (Krahn, Lowe, Hughes, 2011 p. 264). Management can attempt to increase morale in their workplace by involving workers in decision-making processes normally closed off to managerial personnel; for instance, the addition of a new technology that a group of workers will eventually have to use. A manager could adopt a normative approach to managing their employees by conveying true, not fabricated, trust and interest in their employees and the work process as well (Krahn, Lowe, Hughes, 2011 p. 241). A manager could show this by doing the actual labour himself for a day or week or going out on the shop floor and asking meaningful questions. Since unions serve to represent the mass of workers they can work alongside management teams to better shape the workplace. The union,

The aviation industry, due to its fast paced and extremely performance oriented nature, is an ideal example of how proper organizational behavior lends to the growth, and ultimate success of a company. Often, mitigating operational hurdles and constraints becomes the focus of leadership in this industry as problems such as financial limitations continually arise. This unfortunately can result in employers neglecting the most essential part of their company, the employees. The ability for an employer to recognize and resolve threats to employee job satisfaction and security, conquer lack of employee motivation, and proactively negotiate internal and external conflict allows for a company to thrive.

Empowering broad-based action—the company should continually check barriers of change and remove obstacles to make the change strategy successful. BA (2010) announced that striking staff would forfeit cheap travel perks. This action aimed to reduce strikes and penalized strikers. In addition, more than 80 crew members (2010) had been suspended and 13 had been permanently dismissed from BA. BA took actions to remove barriers. However, it did not help Cabin Crew to meet their needs, and caused new barriers.

When evaluating relationship management, we can see that Mr Callahan is held in quite high regard at Pancontinental Airways by his employees and is described as a ‘visionary leader’. Having the admiration of employees is very beneficial in any organisation, and by doing so can create many advantages in the industry, such as the maintenance of ‘low staff turnover rates and high commitment from staff’. This we can see as happening at Pancontinental Airways where the company employs individuals seen to have the ‘right attitude.’ This is then followed by ‘specific training to develop the already present personal qualities of staff’. (Case study) Callahan openly encourages membership of unions so that he can have improved negotiations than with the individual

The research draws attention to key findings that the organisation fosters open communication and there is a strong commitment from top management towards employees. The communication channels applied most

Prior to the marketing campaign touting BA as “The World’s Favorite Airline,” BA was often referred to as “bloody awful.” The company suffered from poor performance, inefficiencies, an older fleet, and substantial financial losses. Following passage of the Civil Aviation Act in 1971, BA assumed control of two state-run airlines, British European Airlines (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), under the name British Airways. However, BEA and BOAC operated autonomously with separate boards, chairman, and chief executive officer that provided a challenge in making change. The level of

British Airways (BA) was formed in 1974 by the merger of the British Overseas Airways Corp (BOAC) and the British European Airways (BEA). BA’s integration did not come without problems. By the early 1980’s BA generated debs in excess of £500m, staff discontent and customer dissatisfaction were common denominators across the operational equation and in 1980 the airline topped a list of airlines to be avoided at all costs.

British Airways (BA) is a company that encountered several difficulties back in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The poor performances of the organization, was leading the company to failure. BA was offering a service that even though it accomplished the mission of the company, was not providing customer satisfaction. The organization was not taking into consideration the needs of the costumer and was not providing an acceptable customer service experience. “Productivity at BA in the 1970s was strikingly bad, especially in contrast to other leading foreign airlines” (Jick, Peiperl, 2010, p.28). Due to numerous changes, the company increased their revenues and became a respectful and well know organization.

As described by Palmer, Dunlap & Akin, at the start of the peak holiday season, British Airways (BA) employees at London Heathrow airport participated in a 24 hour wildcat strike due to the implementation of a timeswipe card system that would monitor the employees ' clocked- in-and-out hours. To the executives, this change represented an improvement in technology that would increase organizational efficiency. To the staff, however, this change represented something entirely different; distrust and disrespect.BA executives had a history of ensuring that the organization was taken care of at the expense of its employees. Jobs were cut, agreements were broken, and this new swipe card system was just another example of the executives finding a way to monitor and control the staff to the organization 's economic gain. The staff feared that management would monitor their hours and send them home during off hours and then call them back to duty at peak hours. In addition, the way in which the change was communicated to the staff was what propelled the staff to revolt. The executives sprung the change initiative on the staff with little warning and provided inconsistent reasons for the necessity of the change. This made it nearly impossible for the staff to accept or adjust to the change in a positive way.