Transport and General Workers' Union says British Airways' cabin crew strike will not be averted by conciliation service Acas

As a former American Airlines employee, I am no longer surprised at the galling demands for policies that eliminate accountability and encourage lower productivity by modern aviation labor unions. I am, however, still dismayed by these demands.

Two years ago, cabin crew employees for British Airways (BA) were using an average of 22 sick days per year per employee.  The average month only has around 22 to 23 work days in it.

This means out of the entire cabin crew workforce, each and every employee was taking one full month off each year due to illness!  Add in vacation benefits and it’s no surprise that the Transport & General Workers Union (TGWU) can make the claim that BA is trying to do too much work with too few employees.  Of course there are too few employees: they're all calling in sick.

To put this example in stark terms: two years ago, if all cabin crew employees had taken their 22 sick days consecutively all in the same month, BA would have had to double its entire workforce of cabin crew employees for one full month just to cover the regular full-time crews that had all called in sick.

While I’m sure the TGWU would be thrilled to increase the cabin crew workforce (more union dues), the travelling public has to keep in mind those increased labour / pension / overhead costs would find their way into each and every ticket purchased.  Ironically, the TGWU still tries to spin this as a fight for the common man’s rights.

I say ironically, since I doubt that the average British citizen is allowed to take off an entire month every year due to “illness” – I know I sure as heck can’t.

The national average in the UK is only seven sick days per annum per worker. Of course, I am sure there are isolated cases of sincere health related hardships by BA cabin crew employees; but the TGWU would have you believe that these isolated cases comprise the majority of cases.

Common sense and a knowledge of basic statistics compel us to face the fact that the largest area under this bell curve is likely populated by malingerers and sick leave abusers.  Either that or BA’s cabin crews are comprised of the most broken down employees in the world, which I reject as implausible.

Needless to say, it is no surprise to me that the fastest growing segments of the world’s commercial aviation market are the low cost airlines. An airline’s largest operating expense next to fuel is always labour.

Carriers like Ryanair and Easyjet across the pond, typically get much higher productivity from their employees and thus lower labour costs than legacy carriers.

As a general rule, those savings are passed on to the consumer in the form of lower ticket prices.  This is one of the main reasons why budget carriers are eating the lunches of legacy carriers everywhere you look.

Sadly however, legacy carriers like British Airways have unions that have developed entitlement mentalities, unions like the TGWU that actually think that a full month of sick days off per employee every year is fair and reasonable.

So don’t shed a single tear for the bell curve sickness that BA cabin crews and the TGWU have become infected with. Instead, demand that these poor infected individuals be treated, cured and allowed back into the saner workforce of average British citizens who only take seven sick days a year on average.

Either that, or quarantine the BA cabin crews and the TGWU and let their sickness run its course.  Perhaps an appointment with the bankruptcy courts will cure this ailment.  If you happen to work for BA while this infection plays itself out though, you may want to pick up a few applications for Ryanair and Easyjet; I hear they’re hiring.