Catherwood LibraryILR School

In open letters published in the Daily Mail, Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, and Tony Woodley, the joint general secretary of Unite, criticized each other for the strikes and negotiations. Walsh called the two strikes a failure and said that Unite should put British Airway's latest settlement offer to a vote. Walsh also denied that the strikes had hurt the airline's profits, saying that they expected the same overall yearly profit. Woodley disputed Walsh's claims, saying that the two strikes were successful, and that while Unite agreed that the airline needed to cut costs, they had rejected the settlement offer because it was worse than the original contract that they had struck over. Unite has said that they will not strike for the next two weeks, but there are currently no plans for renewed negotiations between the airline and Unite. Analysts have said that British Airways canceled 42% of flights to and from Heathrow during the 4-day work stoppage last weekend.