FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: British Airways logos are seen on tail fins at Heathrow Airport in west London
(Reuters) – British Airways and its pilots’ union BALPA have reached a preliminary agreement to end the pay dispute that resulted in the first walkout by pilots in the airline’s history, the union said on Friday.
The agreement came after the two sides held talks under the auspices of the ACAS arbitration service.
BALPA said in a statement: “We can confirm that BALPA, BA and ACAS have put together a new pay and conditions proposal and, subject to final checks, BALPA expects it will shortly be consulting its 4,000 BA members on them.”
A BA spokeswoman said “We welcome this positive step.”
As part of the agreement, BA agreed to insert an inflation protection clause to its previous pay offer of an 11.5% rise over three years, the Financial Times reported.
The airline also offered improvements to working conditions, rostering and flight bonuses, the paper added.
British Airways pilots went on strike for 48 hours in September, grounding 1,700 flights.
BA, part of International Consolidated Airlines Group <ICAG.L>, said in September that the strikes had cost it 137 million euros ($151 million).
(Reporting by Alistair Smout in London and Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Louise Heavens)
MONTREAL/WINNIPEG, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Canada’s Liberal government sent two ministers on Monday to meet with representatives of Canadian National Railway Ltd and its largest union, as already hard-hit shippers pleaded for government intervention to avert a strike planned for early on Tuesday.
The threatened strike by 3,000 workers with Teamsters Canada comes after CN, the country’s largest railroad operator, said on Friday it would cut management and union jobs, as it grapples with softer economic conditions.
Labor Minister Patty Hajdu and Transportation Minister Marc Garneau were to meet with representatives from CN and the union in Montreal, Hajdu’s press secretary Veronique Simard said, following a stalemate in contract talks.
CN said it believes a strike can be averted “with the assistance of federal mediators,” after Teamsters declined to submit to binding interest arbitration. “We expect talks to continue up to Nov. 19,” CN said. Teamsters and CN reached a last-minute deal in 2017 that averted a planned strike. Canada, one of the world’s biggest exporters of farm products, relies on its two main railways to move canola and wheat over the vast distances from western farms to ports. Crude oil shippers in Alberta have also used trains in the past two years to reach U.S. refineries as an alternative to congested pipelines.
Alberta wheat and barley commissions, representing farmers, urged Ottawa to intervene, as they are already facing difficult harvest conditions because of weather. “There are a lot of farmers who already have a significant amount of their income trapped under snow,” said Gary Stanford, Alberta Wheat Commission chair. “Now adding insult to injury, we’re looking at possible CN rail strike action too.”
CN was expecting slightly lower fourth-quarter crude shipments from the third quarter, officials said on an Oct. 22 conference call.
Slumping commodity prices, congested oil pipelines and a dispute with China that has hampered Canadian agriculture exports have pressured the economies of resource-rich western provinces.
Teamsters Canada spokesman Christopher Monette said the planned strike by its conductors, train personnel and yard workers comes because workers are “hitting a wall on issues related to health and safety.”
“While we continue to negotiate in good faith and in hopes of avoiding a labor dispute, we have every intention of striking at 00:01 a.m. ET tonight (0501 GMT) unless an agreement can be reached before then,” Monette said by email.
CN shares were trading down 0.5% in early afternoon Toronto trading.
(Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Additional reporting by Kelsey Johnson in Ottawa; Editing by Tom Brown and Marguerita Choy)
DAR ES SALAAM/JOHANNESBURG, Aug 24 (Reuters) – South African authorities impounded an Airbus 220-300 aircraft leased by Tanzania’s national flag carrier following a court application by a retired farmer who is owed compensation by the Tanzanian government, the farmer’s lawyer said.
The plane had been scheduled to fly from the Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on Friday, but was seized on an order issued by the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, Tanzania’s transport ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Roger Wakefield, of Werksmans Attorneys, said his client, an elderly farmer who asked not to be named, was owed $33 million, including interest, in compensation from the Tanzanian government after his land in the country was expropriated several decades ago. The farmer was subsequently awarded the compensation in an arbitration, he said.
Wakefield said the only way Tanzania could secure the release of the plane was if it put up security or paid the debt.
A Tanzanian government spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
Calls to the High Courts in Gauteng province went unanswered outside of usual business hours.
Speaking by phone to Reuters, Wakefield said the plane was impounded in line with South African and international laws allowing for an asset owned by a foreign entity to be attached to a case related to a foreign arbitration award.
The plane was chosen because there is evidence it is owned directly by the Tanzanian government and its value is commensurate with the amount owed to the farmer, who was born in Namibia, he said.
While the Tanzanian government has acknowledged it owes the farmer money, has previously made some payments and promised to pay the rest, it has not made a payment since around 2014, Wakefield said.
The plane is leased by loss-making state carrier Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL).
President John Magufuli has personally taken charge of the revival of the airline, spending hundreds of millions of dollars purchasing eight new planes since 2016.
The airline’s existing fleet, which is leased from the state-run Tanzania Government Flight Agency (TGFA), includes one Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, two Airbus A220-300 jets and three DHC Dash 8-400 aircraft, formerly known as the Bombardier Q400 turboprop.
ACTL managing director Ladislaus Matindi told Reuters earlier on Saturday that the impounded plane was an Airbus 220-300, and arrangements had been made for its passengers to use another plane for their planned flight.
Tanzania has pinned hopes on the revival of the national airline to turn the country into a regional transport hub and boost the tourism sector, its biggest foreign exchange earner.
In 2017, a Canadian construction firm seized one of Tanzania’s new Q400 turbo-prop planes in Canada over a $38 million lawsuit related to a compensation ruling by the International Court of Arbitration.
The Q400 was released in March 2018 after Magufuli sent the country’s prime minister and attorney general to Canada to negotiate its release. Aviation sources said the government reached a financial settlement to secure the aircraft.
(Reporting by Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala in Dar es Salaam and Emma Rumney in Johannesburg Writing by Hereward Holland and Emma Rumney Editing by Angus MacSwan and Frances Kerry)
