By DOUG CAMERON and DANIEL MICHAELS
Cabin crew at British Airways PLC began a five-day strike at midnight Sunday, after the failure of weekend talks to broker a deal with its flight attendants.
Last-minute talks between the airline and union representatives were broken up by outside protesters Saturday, and further negotiations with the Unite union failed to materialize amid a lingering dispute about travel perks withdrawn from staff involved in a previous strike in March.
The series of three five-day stoppages at Europe's third-largest airline is the most damaging among a wave of industrial action facing an industry just emerging from the prolonged economic downturn. A number of carriers across Europe and the U.S. are involved in disputes, some of which have bubbled over into strikes.
A BA spokeswoman said Monday that the number of crew reporting for work "is at the level we expected," so they can run flights as promised: 50% of short-haul flights and 60% of long-haul flights at London's Heathrow airport. In total, 70% of BA passengers are getting their flights, she said, though thousands more were already put on other airlines' flights.
The airline plans to prioritize staff to operate its busiest and most profitable routes without interruption, and also charter aircraft and crew to fill some gaps.
While BA plans to operate a reduced schedule over the next five days, the impact will also ripple through partners in its oneworld airline alliance and other passengers connecting on BA services.
A U.K. court last week upheld the right of BA staff to strike this week following two stoppages in March over long-standing pay, benefit and staffing issues. The latest action was due to start last week but was delayed after BA won a temporary injunction.
The weekend talks at the offices of Acas, an independent mediator, were disrupted by external protesters. "We really weren't expecting a mob to turn up like that," said BA chief executive Willie Walsh in an interview with the BBC. However, the incident also triggered further acrimony when a union negotiator was revealed to have provided some Twitter updates on the talks. The two sides had earlier said that agreement had been reached on many substantive issues surrounding the long-running dispute, but Mr. Walsh has said the union has been unable to sell a deal to some of its members.
The BA spokeswoman said Monday that the airline remained available for talks. "It was Unite that called off talks yesterday," she said. "We thought there were more talks planned."
Unite wasn't immediately available for comment.
Two more five-day stoppages are planned to start on May 30 and June 5, with a third having been curtailed by the court injunction. The March stoppage cost the airline £43 million, or $62 million. The planned 20-day strike that has been delayed and shortened by an injunction would have cost BA about £138 million.
Write to Doug Cameron at
doug.cameron@dowjones.com and Daniel Michaels at
daniel.michaels@wsj.com
