British Airways (BA) cabin crew will stage a further 20 days of strikes starting next week, Unite union has announced.
The airline’s cabin crew will now conduct four five-day strikes in May and June with the first taking place between 18 and 22 May.
Strikes will also occur on: 24-28 May, 30 May-3 June, and 5-9 June.
The news follows a Unite ballot of cabin crew last week which rejected an offer from BA to settle the dispute over job cuts and working conditions.
Unite also revealed it would hold another industrial action ballot of cabin crew over the airline’s conduct during the dispute.
Unite’s joint general secretaries Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley said: “Passengers and investors alike will be dismayed that British Airways’ management rejected an approach by the union over the weekend, after their offer had been comprehensively turned down by their own employees.
“Cabin crew are left with no choice but to take further strike action. There can be no industrial peace without meaningful negotiations and while management victimises trade unionists and uses disciplinary procedures in a witch-hunt.”
A BA spokesman said the strikes were “pointless” and had no “semblance of justification”.
He said: “British Airways is saddened but not surprised that Unite has announced further plans for extensive disruption for potentially hundreds of thousands of our customers over a busy period that includes the May half-term holidays.
“This decision has no semblance of justification. Unite’s officials continue to operate in their own world, showing callous disregard for our customers and their own members in all parts of our airline.”
The airline said it believed it had made a fair offer to its cabin crew, and that offer remained available.
The spokesman added: “We are confident that many crew will again ignore Unite’s pointless strike call and support the efforts of the rest of the airline to keep our customers flying.”
BA said flights to and from Gatwick and London City would operate as normal while “a substantial part” of long-haul flights and “a number of short-haul flights” at Heathrow would also fly.
The airline will again seek to lease extra aircraft from other carriers to maintain its short-haul schedule.
