[align=center]
BA boss Willie Walsh surrounded as demonstrators storm union talks
British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh had to be escorted to safety from a meeting with unions after demonstrators stormed the headquarters of conciliation service, Acas.
By David Harrison
22 May 2010
telegraph.co.uk[/align]
Police were called to the Acas building in London after around 60 demonstrators from the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party broke in. Officers had to escort Mr Walsh to safety.
BA and Unite said they were angry at the protest which came at a time when they said they were “making progress” in the negotiations aimed at averting 15 days of strikes by cabin crew due to begin on Monday. Mr Walsh said he was “disgusted” by the demonstration and Tony Woodley, the Unite general secretary, described the protesters as “idiots”.
In chaotic scenes, The protesters broke into the building through a side door just before 5.30pm. The demonstrators, chanting and banging doors, made their way to a “secure” area on the 23rd floor where they surrounded Mr Walsh. The negotiations, were called off as officers arrived to escort Mr Walsh to safety and to move the protesters out of the building. The talks are expected to resume today at a secret location.
A spokesman for BA said: “The protest was appalling, totally unnecessary. It has disrupted the talks which were making progress, and has done nothing to help us make sure that BA passengers will be able to fly next week,” he said. Mr Woodley said: “I am very angry about this. Those people are idiots. We were making progress and they have ruined it. We have wasted an afternoon and an evening. The talks have not broken down they have been broken up by a bunch of idiots.”
BA accused Derek Simpson, joint leader of Unite, of sending Tweets throughout the afternoon, giving a “running commentary” of the negotiations. The airline said in a statement: “We are astonished that Derek Simpson feels it appropriate to Tweet to the world a running commentary of some very delicate negotiations on a Saturday afternoon aimed at averting strikes which will impact on thousands of hard working families wanting to go on half-term holidays and the job security of his members.
BA said Mr Walsh was not injured during the extraordinary scenes. Mr Simpson and Mr Woodley insisted the protest had nothing to do with the union. Peter Harwood, chief conciliator at the arbitration service Acas, said: “It was quite a shock. We had been in talks for five hours and were getting somewhere when we suddenly heard chanting and shouting and about 50 or 60 people burst into the building and surrounded Willie Walsh. We managed to get him out of the back of the building. We have had protest here before but never anything like this.”
Earlier Mr Harwood said: “I believe that there is a window of opportunity this weekend for a negotiated settlement to be achieved. If an agreement is not reached this weekend there is every possibility that additional pressures on both sides will make a final resolution more problematic.”
---------------------
On the Daily Mail site there's a quote attributed to the Unite representative which quotes him as saying 'They're lunatics'. That's not the sort of language I'd expect from a Union leader...