British Airways (LSE:BAY) Workers about to go on Strike - End of the Airline?

According to British transportation secretary Andrew Adonis in an interview with the BBC, the proposed strike by workers for British Airways (LSE:BAY) is unjustified and could end up destroying the company in the future.

"I believe if they could continue these negotiations in a constructive way, it would be possible to call this strike off," Adonis said in the interview. "And I call on them to engage in those negotiations and to put the public first and to put the company first, and not to take action which not only would be deeply damaging to the economy and to the public, but which could threaten the very jobs of their members which they're seeking to protect."

Supposedly Unite, the union in question, said they were willing to keep negotiating and were also ready to present the offer to their people, saying it was the other side which pulled the offer off the table.

That is not really true though, as the union leadership said they wouldn't recommend the offer to their people, effectively making it worthless to go through the steps of making the offer in the first place.

In a statement the union said "Unite was preparing to put BA's offer to our members. Had they accepted it, there would be no strikes," but again, that was disingenuous, as the outcome had already been decided by the leaders of the union, and so the negotiations, as far as in relationship to the offer, were over.

Walkouts are scheduled to begin on March 20 and last for three days, and then another walkout is scheduled for March 27, and that will last for four days.

Adonis in stating the walkout was unjustified, said the issues at stake were disproportionate to the walkout. The issues were the working conditions of the employees and a wage freeze.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked the two sides to get back together and start negotiations again, but it's unclear how that will help when the union essentially said they don't accept the offer.