British Airways cabin crew revisits strike.

British Airways cabin crew begin voting on a strike action today as the dispute over staff reductions, pay and working conditions worsens between the airline and unions, reported The Times.

The Unite trade union, representing the cabin crew, is polling around 12,000 crewmembers for a strike, which could ground the airline in the run-up to Easter, The Guardian reported. Unite is revisiting the idea of the strike after a planned 12-day walkout over Christmas was stopped by a High Court injunction. Popular opinion was largely against the strike; newspapers around the country branded the striking crewmembers as “selfish” and claimed that they’d be ruining Christmas for thousands of families. Even UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown weighed in on the proposed strike, pressuring BA and Unite to return to the negotiating table.

Since then, however, formal negotiations between the airline and the unions failed.

“Negotiations have been going on for over a year, but despite cabin crew being asked to make the heftiest sacrifices of all, British Airways continues to provoke cabin crew by imposing changes and refusing to negotiate openly and fairly,” the union claims on its website. BA, on the other hand, has said that an airline hemorrhaging £1.6 million a day must cut costs and can no longer sustain an expensive cabin crew, The Guardian reported.

In order to cope with the impending strike, BA has started a three-week training course to allow pilots, engineers and baggage handlers to take over the duties of flight attendants, The Times reported.

According to The Telegraph, Unite condemned BA’s aggressive recruitment operation saying it could put passenger’s safety at risk since cabin crewmembers typically undergo a three-month training.

The general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, Brendan Barber, is holding separate talks with BA and Unite officials in the hopes of restarting peace talks that have faltered over the past week, The Guardian reported.

The ballot closes on 22 February; the earliest a strike could start would be 1 March.