Dear Colleagues
I am writing to wish you all the best for the BA strike beginning this Saturday, both as a Socialist Party councillor here in Coventry and also as the chair of Unite, Coventry no. 7 branch, which meets tonight and which I'm confident will also send a message of support.
This dispute is crucial for your members, as BA management clearly have the long-term aim of weakening your structures and the resolve of your members to resist a race to the bottom in the industry.
It's a tactic we've seen employed many times before against groups of workers where, bluntly, management are more interested in seeking to break the union than the economic cost of their actions.
Given the clear importance of the dispute it is frankly disgraceful that Labour Ministers, including the Prime Minister, should come out in favour of management not only over union members, but members of the union, Unite, which gives millions of pounds a year to the Labour Party.
Just as firefighters reconsidered their financial support for Labour following similar disgraceful treatment seven years ago I would not be surprised if many of your members reached a similar conclusion.
Please let me know what we can do here in the Coventry area to give you practical and moral support, and it will be yours for the asking.
Good luck.
Dave Nellist
