As the third day of the British Airways (BA) cabin crew strike continues, 56 flights have been cancelled from Heathrow, according to the BBC. Tony Woodley, the joint general secretary of Unite, continued to call for negotiations at the protest, but insisted that "the union is not just going to cave in with the dictate".
He said: "You can't just impose changes on a really decent workforce like this and not give them the job security and indeed the rest that they deserve."
The Unite union says that just 300 of the 2,200 cabin crew scheduled to work over the weekend turned up for work. However, BA claimed that nearly 98 per cent of staff were at work at Gatwick, where the disruption has been far less, and more than half at Heathrow.
The BA chief executive, Willie Walsh, posted a YouTube video praising some staff for crossing the picket line. He said: "It was great to see them walking through the terminal building, wearing their uniform, wearing it with pride, and they are turning up to keep BA flying."
Operations are expected to be under greater pressure today, as there is a higher volume of flights on weekdays than at the weekend.
Cabin crew are striking over staffing and pay charges. Those striking claim that colleagues are working because they are afraid they will lose their jobs otherwise. A second walk-out is scheduled to begin on 27 March.
