ILPC 2026

 The BA cabin crew dispute was one of the longest and most high profile in recent industrial relations history. It was also one of the most contentious with a number of legal challenges with regard to balloting irregularities, issues around allegations of harassment and bullying, the threat of union busting and the suspension of employees and union representatives (Ewing 2011). Cabin crew also faced the opposition of government, the mainly right wing media and their own pilot colleagues, some of whom volunteered to perform cabin crew jobs during the strike periods  (Taylor and Moore2015). The dispute included twenty two strike days.

Strikes are most often reported in statistical terms, for the number of working days lost, stoppages and workers involved by, industry, region, cause, size and duration (ONS 2017). Participation in a high profile dispute is an unusual event given ongoing declining UK strike frequency particularly in the private sector (Godard 2016) and may be a one-off experience in a whole working life.

Most strike literature has as its focus one of four issues, causation, variation between countries and sectors, trends over time and the relationship between strikes and other forms of collective and individual protest (Hodder, Williams, Kelly and McCarthy 2017:165). Other recent concerns in the literature are aspects of the law, such as injunctions pertaining to strikes (Gall 2017; Ewing 2011; Prassl 2011); the impact of social media on strikes (Upchurch and Grassman 2016); and the processes of collectivism and mobilisation (Taylor and Moore 2015). There are a smaller number of articles on strikes which are more individually and personally focussed (McBride, Stirling and Winter 2013) but much of the debate in this area was published in the 1970’s and 1980’s when strikes were more prevalent (Gennard and Lasko 1975). This literature tends to also focus on specific strikes such as Pilkingtons (Lane and Roberts 1971); Fine Tubes (Beck 1974) and the miners’ strike (Spence and Stephenson 2007). Individual data was also heavily relied upon in an account of how much money striking workers have to live on (Gennard and Lasko 1975). These experiences needs updating.

Godard (2011:299) argues that quantitative methodologies are of ‘limited value in terms of looking at the more subtle and hidden manifestations of conflict’ hence a qualitative lens provides some much needed subjective detail from an individual perspective and shows a more emotionally intelligent approach to understanding the deeper response and reflection on conflict at work.

This is an empirical and qualitative paper based on 35 semi-structured interviews, one to three years after the strike with long serving members (15-40 years’ service) of the cabin crew community. The findings highlighted, a change in attitude towards the employer, the union, and colleagues alongside a changed political awareness. The findings have implications for the likelihood of future strikes predicated on individualised ballots and also for future relationships between the employer, employees and their unions.