British Airways cabin crew have again voted to take strike action following a ballot by union Unite.

A strike is not set to take place after 81% of Unite members voted in favour of industrial action, following an 80% turnout. The dispute with BA is over jobs, pay and working conditions, and the dates of the strike have not yet been announced. 

Assistant general secretary Len McCluskey said the vote in favour by 7,482 of the union's 12,000 members, compared with 1,789 against, gave the union the "clearest possible" mandate" for strike action.

But he said the union was still prepared to "get round a table and engage in meaningful discussion" with BA.

"Our members have given us the clearest possible mandate. This is not a mindless bunch of workers who want to bring BA down. They have a real sense se of grievance. What we are saying to BA is please recognise that," he said.

Unite members originally voted for strike action over Christmas last year but the planned 12-day walk-out had to be called off after BA won a High Court ruling that the ballot was illegal because it included staff who had already left the company.

Asked why the percentage of members in favour had dropped from 92% in the first ballot, McCluskey said members had been subjected to "some disgraceful pressure involving bullying tactics and intimidation with threats such as staff travel being taken away from them.”

British Airways said the vote brought a renewed and "completely unjustified" threat of industrial action.

It said most Unite members would have voted for the strike before the High Court rejected the union's claim that BA's changes to crew numbers on some flights were illegal.

The statement added: "We believe some progress has been made in recent talks under the auspices of the TUC and we reiterate our wish to resolve the issues between us in the interests of our customers and all our staff.

"However, we will not allow Unite to ruin this company. Should a strike take place, we will do everything we can to protect our customers’ travel plans as far as possible." 
Travelsupermarket.com spokesman Bob Atkinson said the announcement was a “disaster”  for the airline and the staff as both sides would lose out if the strike went ahead.
“Customers are already deserting the airline - at travelsupermarket.com we have seen a significant 19% reduction in people clicking through to BA flights since this latest ballot started,” he said.
 “We urgently call on BA and Unite to resolve this long running issue once and for all, to put an end to the customer misery from this strike action,” he added.
However, Premier Holidays managing director Susan Papworth said sales with BA had increased 41% in the past three months despite uncertainty about strike action, partly because of successful launches for new routes such as Las Vegas