Mike Southby

I’m sat here watching the on-going battle between British Airways and Unite – the union representing the BA cabin crew – on Sky News.  So as we all know, Unite members were due to start the first of their most recent bouts of strike action later this evening at midnight.  BA have today sought an injunction at the High Court and have been granted this effectively ruling the strike action illegal as Unite did not follow the correct procedures during their most recent ballot (you’d have thought they would have learnt by now); so it got me thinking, just why are the cabin crew so against BA, after all BA pay their wages and in the current financial crisis I’d have thought they would have been glad of the job, especially as it’s the sort of job (I’d imagine) which they choose not only for financial gain, but also for the lifestyle and associated perks.

A quick search and I find this document on the Unite website outlining why they are striking.  So, point for point here are my thoughts:

• “In November 2009, management imposed cuts in staffing levels that crew believe are damaging the airline’s standards as a premier carrier”

Well actually, isn’t that the managements job?  I mean to look at its business model and operating costs and make cuts if necessary.  Certainly, BA would not be the only company to have been forced to make budgetary costs during the recession.   As for the cabin crew believing that the policy and reductions are damaging the airline’s standards as a premier carrier I have two thoughts.  Firstly, that’s not your decision to make; you’re paid to do a job so get on and do it.  Secondly, what standards?  I refuse to fly long haul with BA as I feel the standards over the last 10 years have dropped significantly, not least owing to a large proportion of the cabin crew staff that I have found rude and inattentive compared with some of the newer airlines still in their infancy.

• “Staffing levels have been cut from four to three on the Euro-fleet, while long-haul crews have seen reductions of between one to three”

We’re in a recession, honestly what do people expect?  Surely it’s better to reduce the staffing levels and maintain the operability of the airline?  Or should they keep things as they are and wait for the company to go bust?  I do feel for those affected, honestly I do but when the figures don’t add up changes need to be made, its basic business.   The reduction in crew should not cause any problems in the real world but means simply that those lucky enough to keep their jobs have to work that little bit harder.

• “Unite members say that service is suffering because of these cuts”

Of course they do, otherwise they could not justify the industrial action.  Regardless, based on my experiences and that of colleagues I would again argue what service?  Perhaps if the cabin crew stopped counting how many colleagues were on the same plane and concentrated on serving the passengers albeit having to work that little bit harder, the service levels would organically improve.   After all the biggest judge of service is the passenger, not the cabin crew.  If the passenger feels that the service received was good they will return, the more passengers that return the more money the company will make and the staffing levels will no doubt return to where they ‘should be’.  Surely by striking the service is suffering more?

• “This dispute can only be avoided if BA is prepared to make a serious attempt to find a negotiated settlement”

Actually it could all be avoided if the Unite members simply stop causing a problem and get on with what they are paid to do – their job.

• “The airline should start by putting the offer made during negotiations back on the table so that Unite can give members the right to accept or reject BA’s proposal.  Unite is prepared to halt the strike while members are consulted and will stand by the crew’s decision.  The ball is clearly in BA’s court”

Since when do people accept a job and then demand their own working conditions.  No, sorry but you knew the deal when you joined, if you have to serve 3 passengers instead of 2 I’m sorry but that’s life.  BA as a company has the right to change policy without asking your permission; I do not see how the cuts have a noticeable impact on your day to day roles apart from meaning you have to work a little harder.  Just go ask a factory worker about hard work.  Besides, re-read the statement.  Whilst I am not sure of the exact circumstances it reads that Unite want BA to remake an offer that they have already made?  If this is the case then why discount it when it was made, it’s not BA’s fault that you said no without even offering your members a chance to vote.

• “BA has been applying bullying tactics.  British Airways’ management, under its boss Willie Walsh, has bullied and intimidated staff for months now.  Over the last two months 38 workers who are union members have been suspended and now risk losing their jobs”

And no doubt if this were to be true they would have legal recourse through the courts.  If there were clear undisputable evidence then why is Willie Walsh not facing charges?  Unsubstantiated hearsay should not be a reason to cause strike action.

The document then goes on the list ‘The Facts’:

• “BA crew are not overpaid.  70% earn less than £20,000 per year”

I don’t understand what this has to do with anything.  Before signing a contract of employment salary is clearly outlined and accepted.  Besides, as I mentioned before cabin crew largely are attracted to the role by the travel perks and benefits, which Unite conveniently play down.  Let’s not forget the 1.52million people in the UK currently claiming Job Seekers Allowance; I’m sure they’d love to become cabin crew for the existing pay and conditions.

• “BA cabin crew are not mindless militants, they are highly trained professional who are proud of the BA brand.  They do not believe that you can run a premier airline with too few crew”

I actually agree with this in part, I think it’s Unite who are the mindless militants in this case, not the cabin crew.  As for being proud of the brand I simply have one question.  If the cabin crew are so proud then why seek to damage the brand further?  Why not instead work with the resources they have available to ensure its success.  The way things are going I see no winners and that, ultimately, means more job losses.

• “Despite a year of talks BA has refused to listen to its cabin crew and has imposed cuts in crew numbers that seriously undermines the high service BA customers’ expect”

Of course this is subjective.  I’m sure that there would have been opinion groups established to report to management the views of the cabin crew, it’s naïve to think that every employee would be able to have their thoughts listened to, but I fail to believe that they have not listened to any genuine concerns.  The cuts that have been imposed have been done so to ensure the on-going survival of the airline.  I’m sure that if the recession had not hit then this would not have happened but let’s be fair, you cannot blame BA for the recession.

It strikes me that this has got out of hand, I wonder if with the benefit of hindsight whether a lot of the cabin crew affected would have pushed this so hard.  Ultimately the prospect of strike action is causing long lasted damage to BA; a lot of customers are simply not willing to take the risk and are booking with rival airlines.  I for one don’t blame them.

Instead of the legal back and forth, I wish the courts would simply stop strike action and stop Unite from going round and round in circles, giving BA and the airline industry in general time to recover and rebuild after the recession.  Of course on the flip side, perhaps BA should be seen to be being a little more approachable to its staff.  Ultimately decisions are made for business reasons and I see no reason why this should not be the case but I’m sure they could work a little harder to justify their decisions with their employees and prevent so much animosity.

Now that’s off my chest, I think it’s time to change the channel, EastEnders has started ;)

Firstly I’d like to say that I’m not much for politics; sure I watch the news as often as I can and try to keep up on current affairs but when it comes to individual parties, policies or politicians themselves, in my experience they are all as bad as one another.  There are pros and cons for all of them.  Gordon Brown has faced his fair share of criticism since becoming Prime Minister, some justified, some not so.  I think anyone who becomes Prime Minster is open to criticism, whether we like the person or not I think we would all agree that it is a tough job in more ways than one.

My problem with Gordon Brown has nothing to do with politics; it has nothing to do with his parties policies.  My problem is with the way in which he continues to fumble his way through life, seemingly blasé of his responsibilities and the way he should be acting, all the while receiving an extremely large pay check, paid by us the taxpayers.

I was reading through the papers this morning and came across the latest articles, featuring yet more stories documenting his trail of let downs.

The leading story is of a letter which he sent to a mother whose son recently died in Afghanistan.  The conflict requires no introduction; it seems not a day goes by that we do not hear of another tragic loss, the loss of another son, another father or another husband.  War is nasty business, I don’t blame Gordon Brown for us (the British Armed Forces) being in Afghanistan, the whys and what for’s are I think the responsibility of more than one man; though we may not like to admit to the fact, sometimes war in inevitable and necessary to preserve our way of life.  However, Gordon Brown in his position of Prime Minister has a responsibility to represent the government, the country and in a roundabout kind of way us the public in expressing his gratitude and condolences to the family and friends of the fallen.  It comes with the territory as they say and if he cannot be ‘bothered’ to do it properly then it’s time to step down.  As well as wrongly-spelt names, the letter to the dead soldier’s mother contained four other mistakes.  He wrote ‘greatst’ for greatest, ‘condolencs’ for condolences, ‘you’ instead of your and ‘colleagus’ instead of colleagues.  He also spelt security as ‘securiity’.  To show how personal the letter was and how much effort he had put into writing it, he ended the letter with repetition by writing ‘my sincere condolences’ and ‘yours sincerely’.  In total the letter had more than 20 mistakes in it, not bad for a single sheet of paper.  Now I do understand mistakes happen, I often make mistakes when writing letters but I always check back afterwards, especially if the letter is important.  This soldier gave his life serving his country, and this is the best he can do?  I think it’s a disgrace.  Gordon Brown has since phoned and apologised but personally I think he could have done a lot more, perhaps a personal visit to apologise in person; surely that would have been the least he could have done given the circumstances.

Here’s the letter:

I then read about the way in which he laid his reef of poppies during Sunday’s Remembrance Day service.  I have no doubt that he did not mean any offence but yet again, it is another public show of his lacklustre attitude towards his responsibilities.  Unlike every other government representative, even the Queen; after laying his reef he simply stood upright and did not bow his head as a gesture of respect.  I’m sure it was a genuine mistake just as I’m sure personally in his own mind he was reflecting on the sacrifices of those being remembered but he was not just there as an individual, he was there representing us.  He had a responsibility which yet again, he seems to have neglected very publicly.

I go back to my opening statement; my thoughts have nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with government policies on war or any domestic issue.  However I wonder about the suitability of Gordon Brown for the role of Prime Minster, a role which carries so much responsibility not only for our country, but for us as its people.

Gordon, you MUST do better otherwise please, step aside.

Rant over.

From time to time I check through my Spam folder just to ensure that my filters are working properly and that nothing is being wrongly filtered.  Tonight whilst doing this I came across one of the old fashioned scam emails; you know the ones, where someone in an African country desperately needs your help to transfer a large amount of money and in return, you’ll be paid handsomely.  I needed a laugh so thought I’d read through it, I wasn’t disappointed, how funny!

It makes me laugh that the people behind these scams really believe someone is going to fall for it when the language they use is so poor – surely if you are trying to pull one over on a English person you would either learn the language properly first, or at least use the spelling and grammar check on Word!

Needless to say I hit the delete button but before, I thought I’d share the content with you; it made me laugh.

Enjoy!

From Nelson Daniel
Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire.
West Africa.
Avenue 12 Rue Reine Abla Poku,
12 Bp 7854 Abj 12, Cote D’Ivoire.

Dearest in the lord,

It is my pleasure to write you after consideration,  since I can not be able to see you face to face.  please I need your help.  I am Nelson Daniel the only son of late Mr & Mrs Joseph Daniel, from  Cote D’Ivoire. (I am 20years of age.)

My father was a liability Cocoa and Gold merchant in Abidjan Cote D’Ivoire before his untimely death After business trip to Tunisia to nagociate on a cocoa and gold business he wanted to invest there.  A week after he came back  from Tunisia, he got an accident with my mother of which my mother died instantly but he died five days after in a private hospital.. On that faithful afternoon, I didn t know that my father was going to leave me after I had earlier lost my mother,  but before he gave up the ghost, it was as if he knew he was going to die, (MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PERFECT PEACE)  he called me to his bed side and told me that he deposited the sum of ($6,500,000.00) Six Million Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars in one of the prime bank here in  Cote D’Ivoire.

That the money was meant for his cocoa and Gold business he wanted to establish in Tunisia.  according to my father he deposited the money in a fixed suspense account using my name as the next of kin, He instructed me to seek  for a reliable and trust worthy business partner for my life time investment abroad.  Now I have succeeded in locating the deposit documents and the bank where this money is here in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire. I have also discuss this with the bank manager and he agreed. But  due to the fact that am still younger and inexperienced, I am now seeking for your assistance to help me transfer this money out from my country Cote D’Ivoire to your account abroad so that we should invest it in any meaningful and lucrative business in your country because this is my only hope in life.

I am willing to offer you 15% of the total fund if only you can help me out of my present predicament.I seek your assistance in the follwing ways:

(1.) To provide a bank account where this money can be transfered into..
(2.) To make arrangements for me to come over to your country after the successful transfer of this money into your account,and also to help to further my education under your care.
(3.) To help invest this money in a profitable business since I am only 20yrs of age and do not know much about business.
(4) To sponsor me transfer this money into your account,
(5). I want you to promise me that you are not going to betray me after the money gets into your account.

Contact me on this phone number:  +225 4566 3710.The worst part of it is that my uncle is trying to kill me over this money because I refused to hand him over the documents covering this money, He has sold all my father’s land properties including his cars which rightful belong to me and now he want me to hand over the banking document of my father in my possesion which I refused. Now he said that he will have this money by all means even if it means killing me, so because of this I ran away from home and hide in a hotel,pending when this money will be transfered so that I can leave the country for my safety.

Thank’s and God bless you.
Yours sincerely,
Nelson Daniel

Yeah, thanks Nelson.  Something tells me we won’t be doing business anytime soon

We’ve been getting a whole heap of sales calls recently.  It’s been an annoyance that has been getting progressively worse as the weeks have passed and they have become more and more frequent.  At first I was venting my frustrations on our call providers, being a new number I was frustrated at the amount of calls we were getting that should have been filtered out but it transpires that Vicki put the number on a competition/questionnaire entry she submitted a while back, here lies the problem.

The competition was with a reputable brand, it was with Marks & Spencer.  Had it been with some unheard of company perhaps I could have expected this but it wasn’t.  Surely we can trust Marks and Spencer when it comes to data protection and ensuring our information doesn’t get into the wrong hands?  But it turns out they are just as dishonest as the rest of them and will not think twice about passing out your information to what can only be described as scammers.

Today we get a call to say we have ‘won’ a holiday (I emphasise the word ‘won’ as this is an important legal distinction which effects the way in which these people are supposed to operate) for 4 people to Southern Spain, The Canaries or Portugal, all we have to pay is the applicable airport taxes.  Vicki asks me what I think and I say who knows?  I mean someone has to win but on the other hand, it all sounds far too good to be true.  Anyway, the lady on the phone says that she’ll send out some information by email to Vicki so that she can have a look at (owing to the postal strike) along with our unique claim reference number, so far so good and everyone seems friendly and genuine.  Of course, this is where the majority get sucked in.

On opening the email which they sent through I immediately notice that it has been sent from a company called Club La Costa, which is when my suspicions started to be realised.  The email itself strangely contained no sales speech, no information or further details, but just an attachment with a map to a location in Bristol where an exhibition was being hosted by another company called CLC Exhibitions.

Now, contrary to popular belief a dog isn’t a man’s best friend – it’s actually Google.  So I run a couple of searches for Club La Costa and CLC Exhibitions and am not at all surprised to find a whole bunch of complaints regarding this company and the way they operate.

The scam is quite simple.

Club La Costa – or CLC Exhibitions – somehow manages to acquire your details and ring you up claiming that you have won a holiday, they tell you that this is a genuine prize if you will and that there are no strings attached.  They don’t even tell you that you will have to attend a time share opportunity sales presentation.  All they tell you is that the holiday is for up to 4 people and is valid for 18 months.  The only stipulation according to the nice lady on the phone is that you will be liable for airport taxes.  Flights, accommodation and other holiday expenses are all included.

It’s human nature; by this point almost everyone will have pictures on lying on the beach firmly set in their minds, especially for the bargain price of nothing.  Being that we are in a credit crunch the thought of winning a free holiday for 4 is hard to ignore.  But it’s then once you’ve already got a mental picture of the holiday in your mind that you find out you have to attend a presentation evening to claim your holiday, of course if you believe what your told, the only reason you need to attend the evening is so that the company can check your identity to prove it’s you and you are eligible.  It’s got nothing to do with sales apparently, because we all believe salesmen right?

The true facts are that you have not won anything at all; in fact you are not even one of the chosen few.  This ‘opportunity’ is being pitched to hundreds if not thousands of people across the country.  Legally, the companies involved are meant to tell you that you have been given the opportunity to be ‘awarded’ a holiday, using the word ‘won’ or ‘win’ is sly, underhand and bordering on illegal.  In order to qualify, you have to attend a presentation evening at one of CLC Exhibitions centres around the country, you may be fortunate and have one nearby, but usually you’ll have to drive an hour to your nearest location, of course at your own expense.  Whilst at the evening you will be bombarded with a sales presentation lasting many hours.  During this presentation you will be subjected to sales people trained to mislead and coerce you into signing up to their trial scheme which lasts 3 years and costs upwards of £3000.

Caveat:  Now to be fair, timeshare works for some, some people I found on Google have had good experiences with Club La Costa, and continue to be happy but of course they are in the minority.  It’s really up to you to decide if this is a scam or a genuine opportunity.

So, if you manage to sit through the whole process and say ‘no thanks’ then so long as you meet their marketing criteria (you’re a UK homeowner, are aged between 25-62, married or living together as a couple for at least a year and at least one of you is in full time employment earning at least £30000) you are eligible for the holiday – finally.  The holiday of course costs a lot more than you are expecting and has a lot of hidden extras, all chargeable.  We haven’t been to any presentation so I cannot say for sure how much we would be charged but internet opinion says that the charge is £29.50 per person to cover their administrative cost and a varying cost which covers the applicable taxes, usually amounting to a few hundred quid.  So, at this stage you could have yourselves a holiday for around £400 and yes, if you have a strong resolve and can see your way through the sales talk then this ‘may’ be worth it.  But of course it doesn’t end there.

You’ll be met at your resort by a friendly representative who will do his utmost throughout your holiday to brainwash you into signing up for the timeshare, you can’t be forced to do this of course and you can say no throughout but I for one would need a holiday to recover from this when I got home.  You’ll also be obliged to attend a formal presentation on one day of your holiday and sit through another presentation just as you did back home.

Here’s an extract from a comment written by a former employee of Club La Costa which I found on one of the consumer opinion websites:

I have previously worked for Club La Costa for just short of 3 years and after reading this thread and seeing claims that there were “no catches” involved I felt obliged to set you straight. This is extremely untrue. ******* ******* is totally right in saying that there is no obligation for you to purchase anything from Club La Costa, but in the event you refuse to do so, the staff there are trained to sell in such a way you are made to feel inferior. I have even heard cases where the staff make customers who refuse to purchase a timeshare like they are only doing so as they cannot afford it.
******* –  What you wrote on this thread looks surprisingly like the script I spent 3 years of my live reading to poor unsuspecting people. The sad truth is that the information given to the customers on the phone is 100% accurate, Club La Costa are very clever in the way they word things. Club La Costa employees are told under no circumstances to say to words “free” or “won”, this doesn’t mean they don’t use words to this effect to create the same excitement.
Customers are coaxed into attending a meeting, usually in a rented building or in part of a hotel. Whilst working for the company I dealt with customers from areas including Leeds, Manchester, London and Southampton. If they agreed to attend the meeting they were to be subjected to a very hard sell for at least 3 hours in which time they were made to feel inferior. Customers are also only awarded the vouchers as promised if they stay for the whole of the meeting. The lucky ones then got offered the chance to go on holiday with Club La Costa. They would then have to choose 3 dates. Only one of these could be “peak” times so those of you with children only have a 1 in 3 chance of being able to take your holiday in school holiday times. It’s like walking through a mine field – you have to try and get to the other side without one of the traps going off – for the “lucky” ones of you who do get to the other side you get to spend a week, usually in the lovely Costa del Sol, with a very well trained sales man who literally will not leave you alone from the minute you wake up ‘til the minute you go to sleep.
I do have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time working for Club La Costa. I met some of the nicest people I will ever meet. It’s just a shame that the company bases itself on hard selling to innocent people who undoubtedly do not want or need timeshares.

You don’t get anything for free in this world; we all know this deep down.  I think it’s a scandal that companies like this are allowed to target people who perhaps do not have the strength to say no.

Club La Costa, CLC Exhibitions – whatever they may be calling themselves – should be stopped.  I leave it up to you to form your own opinions but I for one will be avoiding them at all costs.

If you have had any experiences with Club La Costa or CLC Exhibitions – good or bad – leave a comment below, the more people leaving an opinion the better the resource will be for people searching for information.  The more viewpoints we have the easier it’ll be for everyone to make up their own minds if they recieve the call to say they have ‘won’.

Heathrow Terminal 5

A few days ago I took my first visit to Heathrow’s new Terminal 5; British Airways new international hub. I have used all of the other terminals at Heathrow previously both as a passenger and whilst dropping off or picking up friends and family so was eager to see how different the new terminal is and how it compares to its siblings, especially after all the press hype during the build up to the new terminal opening, and the coverage of the problems it faced during its initial months of operation.

Sadly, my visit to Terminal 5 was not as a passenger, I would love to say that I was jetting off somewhere exotic but unfortunately not this time (although actually I could do with a holiday…). No, I went to Terminal 5 to drop off some of my family who were flying off to Houston and then again a few days later to pick them up on their return.

We’ve all read the stories about the complete disaster affecting traveller’s luggage amongst other things when the terminal first opened. Being fair to BAA, when any large scale engineering project takes place I think it’s fair to assume that there will always be some teething problems. Unfortunately, this project was always going to be in the public eye and as such, the teething problems were plastered all over the tabloids and news screens, a shame really. Yes it was a huge problem at the time but in hindsight, I don’t recall any of the stories covering the good points, the efficiency of the terminal itself and huge steps forward compared to the other terminals at Heathrow.

So what is it like today? Well, on entering the new terminal I have to say I was impressed. All of the other terminals at Heathrow are in my experience crowded, not very well laid out and hectic to say the least. Whilst I would never say the experience was traumatic, I have always made sure I left in plenty of time to allow for the airport ‘process’ itself when flying from Heathrow (or any other major international airport for that matter). When we arrived at Terminal 5, I’d waved goodbye to my family through the security gates within around 5 minutes. No queues. No fuss. No crowd. Now in case you were wondering, this was around 11am during a weekday so stereotypically a busy time at the airport. I thought perhaps this was just down to ‘luck’ on the day, I mean surely Terminal 5 cannot be this efficient compared to the other 4 terminals? Now that would be something.

A few days later I head back to the airport to pick up. I arrive early as the flight is due in at 7:30 in the morning, which of course is a very busy time for arriving international flights. I was expecting to find the usual hustle and bustle in the arrivals lounge but again, it was peaceful, none of the stress I was used to after experiencing the other terminals. Looking at the arrivals board there were major international flights arriving every few minutes, each with hundreds of people on board and yet people were coming through from customs a few at a time, orderly, and without the rush that I was expecting. In the arrivals lounge itself the people waiting for loved ones and the line of executive car drivers standing with their name boards never looked large enough to even call a crowd. No queue at Costa Coffee (which I made use of, needless to say…). No stress. I have to say I was impressed, it was just as calm and stress free as it had been a few days previously. Even the new arrivals information boards were super efficient informing you when a plane had landed, when it had arrived at its allocated gate, when passenger bags were arriving in the collection lounge and then again, when all bags had been delivered. It made waiting for people super easy. There was no need to stand endlessly waiting as you knew quite accurately when people would be walking out into the lounge.

It seems to me that behind the scenes, behind the embarrassing bag fiasco that once was, Terminal 5 is the definition of engineering efficiency. The building itself is impressive; a vast open plan space, modern and fresh. Terminal 5 is nothing like any of the other terminals at Heathrow. It has a modern and welcoming presence that I have only ever felt at airports such as Dubai or Kuala Lumpur before. I think the designers should be proud of what they have achieved. I’m sure some people will have had different experiences, and I’m sure even more awaits airside; both positive and negative. But for me, my first experience of the new terminal is definitely a good one.

My closing sentence was going to be something along the lines of ‘I look forward to travelling through Terminal 5 as a passenger soon’, but given that I do not rate British Airways as a long haul airline (in fact, I think they are pretty poor), I doubt I’ll be air side in Terminal 5 anytime soon. Ah well…