Who is right and who is wrong in the BA strike?

As the first strike by British Airways cabin crew comes to an end with a second planned from 27 March, relations between British Airways and Unite, the trade union representing the cabin crew, show no sign of improving.

At the centre of the dispute is BA's decision to reduce the number of cabin crew on long haul flights from 15 to 14 and a 2 year pay freeze from 2010. New contracts have also been proposed for new people joining and newly promoted staff which would see them paid significantly less than current staff. Unite have put forward their own proposals but BA have rejected them as the £63m savings through pay cuts and part time working would not save as much money as the union claim.

BA claim they need to restructure to permanently reduce costs. The company made losses of £342 million in the nine months leading up to the end of December 2009 and say the will make 4,900 redundancies globally by the end of the year. In recent years, BA have lost many air travellers to low-cost airline, many of whom are business travellers, BA's core customers. This could be fatal to BA in the future. Coupled with an economic slowdown, BA would be unable to continue in its current structure and cost levels unless the profitable business passengers come back and pay the prices they were before. BA are experimenting with not serving food on some flights and charging for second bags.

Some staff have decided to break the strike, with one saying 'he and other colleagues were thinking about the long term effects the strike would have on the company".

And therein lies the issue. Some reports have claimed that British Airways staff are paid nearly double that of rival airlines. With British Airways making losses and facing a troubling future, should staff accept that sacrifices have to be made in the current climate? Or should British Airways accept that it's staff are highly professional, experienced cabin crew and pay them accordingly? And what of the role of the Union? Is industrial action and the knock on effect of the strikes to the general public? Is this the best way to conduct negotiations in the current economic situation?

It's a tough situation and very difficult to see how a satisfactory outcome can be decided upon.