Iain Dale's furious reaction to British Airways 'guff' PR statement
6 August 2020, 21:08 | Updated: 6 August 2020, 21:29
Iain Dale reacts to British Airways 'PR guff'
When British Airways refused to provide a spokesperson for his show Iain Dale reacted furiously to the "guff" PR statement they sent instead.
With the news that British Airways owner IAG ais set to cut up to 12,000 jobs out of a total of 42,000 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Iain Dale invited the airline on to his show.
Some BA staff such as pilots have agreed to take pay cuts to minimise the number of redundancies
One caller text in to say their son had worked for BA as ground crew since he left university, "20 years ago," they said he has worked his way up and has "always been proud to work for them, he's worked all the way through the pandemic but is now faced with losing a huge part of his salary."
"He has a wife and two little boys," the LBC listener said adding their whole family was "sick with worry" over the decision being made on Friday.
Earlier on Thursday hundreds of British Airways workers wearing face masks of the company bosses protested outside the airline's headquarters in Uxbridge against the 12,000 job cuts and new contracts.
The demonstrators claimed they were being bullied into either taking redundancy or reapplying for their own jobs on vastly reduced terms and conditions.
But Iain revealed on his LBC show that the airline declined to send a spokesperson, but instead provided a statement.
Once Iain had read the airline's statement he turned to his audience and expressed his disgust.
"You know ladies and gentlemen, that is the kind of guff that you get from a company PR department," screwing up the message from the airline Iain said, "it really isn't worth the paper it's written on."
The LBC presenter then threw it away.
Trade union Unite claims the company is planning to rehire remaining employees on downgraded terms and conditions if an agreement cannot be reached.
The British Airways statement in full:
“For more than 100 years British Airways has been flying millions of people around the world. Today that world remains largely closed.
"This is the biggest challenge the airline and our industry has ever faced. Sadly, the global pandemic has resulted in job losses across every industry. Many airlines have already made thousands of staff redundant.
"We are not immune to this crisis. We have to adapt to survive, so we will continue with the proper, lawful consultative process and we will keep inviting union representatives to discuss our proposals to the serious challenges we face. It is not too late to find solutions – as we have done with BALPA – and to protect jobs.”
