BA pilots to vote on strike action

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The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) said all of BA's 3,200 pilots will vote on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action over whether there will be "open access" to jobs between the airline and the service.

If the pilots go on strike, it will be the first time they have taken action since 1980.

The dispute flared over BA's announcement of a new subsidiary, OpenSkies, due to start in June, offering luxury seat flights from continental Europe to America.

Balpa had been due to announced the ballot last Thursday but delayed the news following the crash-landing of a BA aircraft at Heathrow airport. The union said the row was not about safety and stressed it had nothing to do with last week's incident at Heathrow.

General secretary Jim McAuslan said: "We hope the BA leadership will think again. This is not about money and it is not about safety. We have been prepared to accept that a service will need lower costs to build business and that Balpa would be able to crew the service to meet the BA business case.

"But we are not prepared to see the pilot body broken up in the way BA plans and are bemused as to why they will not use BA pilots. There are fears, borne out by BA's intransigence, that BA's real aim is to start an outsourcing programme 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.

"OpenSkies is being set up with BA money, will fly BA planes and draw on the BA brand and a brand is more than a tailfin. It is about its people and the BA pilot community is making a stand to protect that brand. This is a line in the sand."

OpenSkies is due to start with one Boeing 757 aircraft operating from New York to Brussels or Paris, with a second 757 added later in the year. BA plans to have six 757s in operation by the end of 2009.