Pilots may strike over pay dispute

Jul 26 2006

PILOTS at a leading airline are to be balloted on strikes in a row over pay, threatening travel chaos at Birmingham International Airport around the August Bank Holiday.

The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) today said its members at bmibaby, the low-frills division of BMI, will vote from today on whether to stage a campaign of industrial action.

The union also gave the company seven days' notice that pilots at the main BMI airline would also be balloted unless the dispute was resolved.

The rows are separate but all include opposition from the union to the imposition of a 2.4 per cent pay rise.

Other areas of conflict include plans to increase pension contributions from 10 per cent to 18.5 per cent, which Balpa said would be the highest in the aviation industry.

The result of the bmibaby ballot will be known in mid-August and the union warned that any industrial action would hit airports around the busy Bank Holiday weekend.

Jim McAuslan, general secretary of Balpa, said:"The heart of these disputes is the total lack of respect shown by the company towards its key people - highly trained, highly professional airline pilots."

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