Court Saves Christmas, Blocks British Airways Strike

Dec. 17, 2009— -- More than a million travelers flying British Airways this holiday just got an early Christmas gift from an English court, which ordered an emergency court injunction to stop a 12-day potential strike planned by the airline's cabin crew.

The strike, and plans for parallel walkouts by baggage airport handlers and check-in counter workers, threatened to paralyze travelers during one of the busiest periods of the year.

The High Court backed a claim by British Airways that the ballot of around 13,000 workers by the Unite labor union was illegal because it included members no longer employed by the airline.

The order means that the union had to call off the strike.

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"We are delighted for our customers that the threat of a Christmas strike has been lifted by the court," British Airways said in a statement after the ruling by Justice Laura Cox. "It is a decision that will be welcomed by hundreds of thousands of families in the UK and around the world," the airline added.

The union said the court's order marked a "disgraceful day for democracy" and said that unless an agreement is reached with the airline's management it will call for a new vote. But such voting cannot happen until after Christmas, with a rescheduled strike unlikely before February.

Separate strikes by ground staff at Heathrow and Aberdeen airports and by drivers on the Eurostar high speed trains are still scheduled to begin next week.

The British Airways strike was scheduled to start Monday and could have stranded more than a million passengers and cost the already-struggling airline more than half-a-billion dollars.

The union and airline are at odds over job cuts, pay and working conditions. British Airways management says the cuts are necessary to get the company through the recession.