London: British Airways launched legal action on Tuesday to prevent cabin crew striking for 12 days over Christmas and the New Year, with up to one million travellers facing festive travel chaos.
Britain's biggest trade union, Unite, had announced Monday that its members planned to strike in a row over working conditions, threatening misery for passengers flying over Christmas to visit friends and family.
However, BA fought back on Tuesday, saying in a statement it was "seeking an injunction" to prevent the strike, one day after thousands of cabin crew voted to stop working from December 22 until January 2.
BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh warned that the loss-making airline, which has slashed jobs and costs to save money, did not want to see "a million Christmases ruined."
"British Airways is commencing legal action in an attempt to protect customers from the massive stress and disruption threatened by Unite's decision to call a 12-day strike from December 22," BA said in a statement.
"The airline has today written to Unite, highlighting irregularities in the union's strike ballot which the airline believes renders the ballot invalid.
"The airline called on Unite to call off the industrial action by 2:00 pm (1400 GMT) today. The union has not done so and British Airways is now seeking an injunction to prevent the strike going ahead."
The looming strike comes at a crucial point for British Airways, which is slashing costs and attempting to merge with Spanish carrier Iberia as part of a wider fight to remain competitive against its rivals.
Unite, meanwhile, is protesting at BA's imposed contractual changes that include fewer cabin crew onboard flights, a pay freeze and different working conditions for new members of staff.
Aviation analysts reckon that the strike could cost BA between 10 and 30 million pounds (11-33 million euros, 16-49 million dollars) per day.
BA said Tuesday that it had written three times to Unite to point out what it claimed were "balloting flaws." The group has also written to cabin crew to establish which staff would work through the strike.
In response, Unite bosses said the strike would be scrapped if management agreed to suspend changes to staff conditions.
"If British Airways want to get Christmas back on schedule, and values its relations with its own core employees, it will now take up our offer," said Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley, Unite general secretaries, in a statement.
"Suspend the imposition of contractual changes and we will suspend the strike."
They added: "That is the choice -- a pause for peace or madhouse macho management."
A total of 10,288 cabin crew voted in the ballot, with 92.49 percent in favour of striking.
Walsh said Tuesday "we are absolutely determined to do whatever we can to protect our customers from this appalling, unjustified decision from Unite. We do not want to see a million Christmases ruined.
"Unite was told about the problems with its ballot on Friday. Yet it cynically went ahead with an extreme, highly publicised threat to our customers and our business in the knowledge that it might not be able to carry it out.
"We remain available for talks with Unite at any time without preconditions."
BA revealed last month that net losses quadrupled to 217 million pounds in the group's first half, or six months to September.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 09:01