Shuttle services could be hit by cabin crews' action

before the end of the new year holiday.

The action would disrupt the airline's short-haul flights, including

the shuttles between London and Glasgow and Edinburgh, as cabin crew

react to what they see as moves to set up a ''cut-price'' crewing

operation working out of Glasgow.

The existing 180 Glasgow-based cabin crew are angry that they are not

being offered work on the Glasgow to New York and Boston route when

Boeing 757s are to be introduced from early next month. They are all

fully trained on 757s, which are the mainstay of the shuttle fleet.

BA considers the existing crews to be uneconomic for the transatlantic

route and has been recruiting 34 ''experienced cabin crew'' for the new

unit at pay and conditions that, it is claimed, seriously undercut

present salaries.

It is said to be offering the recruits basic salaries of about #6000,

well short of the present #10,000 to #11,000 and nowhere near the

#16,000 to #18,000 average earnings.

Not only do existing crew feel their jobs are being undermined, they

also maintain that by ''virtually recruiting people off the streets and

turning them into operational crew within days, BA is making a mockery

of the extensive training and experience of existing crew''.

They have been told that their jobs are not threatened in any way.

However, they fear the new base could be the thin end of the wedge that

could result in a rerun of BA's acquisition of British Caledonian which

saw BCal crews sacked then hired again at much reduced pay and

conditions.

''They must think we came up the Clyde on a banana skin if they expect

us to accept such assurances, given their track record,'' said a

spokesperson for Glasgow branch of the BA Stewards' and Stewardesses'

Association section of the Transport and General Workers Union, which

meets today to consider the issue.

Full-time TGWU officials are to attend, and if feelings are running as

high as suggested then an immediate industrial action ballot could be

called. However, even if a ballot mandate is given, the union still

would need to give BA seven days' notice of any industrial action to

remain within the law -- and the new Glasgow base is due to be up and

running by January 4.

Newspaper and radio recruiting advertisements appeared last week,

followed by interviews over the weekend. A ''foreshorted and tailor-made

Glasgow training programme to full Civil Aviation Authority approval''

will follow over the Christmas and new year periods.

BA had planned for the new Glasgow base to come on stream next summer,

with Manchester and Birmingham-based crews used in the interim, but,

following the failure of negotiations with BASSA, the Scottish option

was brought forward.

It maintains it is important for passengers to hear Scottish voices on

the transatlantic flights out of Glasgow and that it is much more

cost-effective in the long run to have crew based in Scotland rather

than night-stopping crews from Manchester or Birmingham.

The proposed new base will be operated by BA Regional and while

management concedes there are mainline 757 crews based in Glasgow it

complains that ''their unit costs are higher than a BA Regional base

will be''.

The Glasgow BASSA branch yesterday sent out urgent messages to their

colleagues south of the Border outlining the issues and stating: ''Us

now . . . you will be next. Please help your Glasgow colleagues''.

Last night, when asked to comment on the situation, a BA Regional

spokeswoman said that it had always recruited separately and had always

paid less than their mainline counterparts.