12 days of strikes for Christmas

The walkout by 12,500 cabin crew between December 22 and January 2 will deal a crippling blow to the airline over one of the busiest periods in the year, unless management reaches an agreement with aviation union Unite negotiators over the next week.

Hundreds of cabin crew turned up at the Unite mass meeting in Sandown racecourse in Esher, Surrey, many wearing their BA uniforms, to announce the strike dates following a ballot of staff over pay and working conditions.

More than nine out of 10 Unite members backed strikes in a huge turnout of over 80 per cent, which the union said had showed how angry cabin crew were at the imposition of changes, including staff cuts.

Unite assistant general secretary Len McCluskey said that he hoped the size of the vote would force BA to reopen negotiations.

He said: "We have taken this decision to disrupt passengers with a heavy heart and we are hoping that the company can still avoid it happening.

"We would like passengers to be angry with the company. It is something of an irony that the people responsible for making BA the best airline in the world are now engaged in a dispute."

Mr McCluskey said that the cabin crew were not "mindless militants" but decent men and women who were proud of BA and did not want to bring the company down.

A spokesman from the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association - a section of Unite - said it was conscious of the disruption action would cause to passengers going on holiday or visiting family and friends over Christmas, but added that cabin crew had been left with no choice by BA's management.

The association laid the blame for the strike action on BA's management, urging them to accept an earlier offer from the union which was aimed at making savings.

A BA spokesman said: "A 12-day strike would be completely unjustified and a huge over-reaction to the modest changes we have announced for cabin crew which are intended to help us recover from record financial losses."

The announcement of strike action came just hours after BA confirmed that the deficit in its two pension schemes has grown to £3.7 billion, up 76 per cent from its £2.1bn deficit in 2006.