BA pilots to vote on strike action

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Airways' 32,000 pilots are to vote for a strike action over the airline's plans to set up a subsidiary for services between continental Europe and the U.S.

Pilots are frustrated over the airline's refusal to ensure there will be open access to jobs on the subsidiary service.

OpenSkies, as it has been named, will begin operations in June following the US/European Union "open skies" deal to liberalize transatlantic air services.

The decision to ballot was taken after weeks of fruitless negotiations between the pilots' union British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA) and BA. Following a three-week ballot period commencing on 29 January and a seven-day decision period for BA, the strike, if endorsed, would go ahead from 19 February.

"This is not about money; and it is not about safety," said BALPA General Secretary Jim McAuslan on Monday. The union was keen to disassociate the dispute with BA038 crash-landing last week.

He said there were fears, "borne out by BA's intransigence", that the airline's real aim is to start an outsourcing program that will eventually force down BA pilot conditions.

"We believe there should be one pilot body for BA and its subsidiary so that there can be fair promotion opportunities, a cohesion of the pilot force which is so important in a safety critical industry and a safeguarding of BA's brand," said McAuslan.

BALPA has confirmed said 78 percent of pilots are in favor of a strike. In such a situation, it would expect an employer to back down rather than ground planes and lose billions of dollars in revenue. But if strike action did go ahead, a BALPA spokesperson could not predict how long it would last.

This would be the first strike action for BA since 1980. Last January, the airline narrowly avoided a 48-hour strike by cabin crew over sickness absence, pay and staffing. E-mail to a friend

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