BA Pilots May Strike Over Pension Dispute

A pilots' union warned British Airways PLC on Thursday that it could go on strike over a pension dispute.

The British Airline Pilots Association, which represents 2,800 BA pilots, said it will fight any plans to make its members pay for a deficit of more than 1 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) in the company's final salary pension program.

The union's general secretary, Jim McAuslan, wrote to the pilots warning that the situation had become "serious."

He said Thursday that BA should honor its "pledge" to the work force to continue the existing benefits program and not ask pilots to increase their contributions.

"We suspect the deficit has arisen because of deficiencies in other parts of the company," McAuslan said. "We are assembling a top team of accountants and advisers and will meet the company head on. We totally reject that pilots should pay for the deficit or any part of it. The team we have assembled will not accept anything BA says at face value and they will probe every statement."

McAuslan said the union will ensure that BA pays pilots their existing pensions.

"We will not fail to take any action necessary to ensure that," he said.

British Airways issued a statement saying the union was being "unprofessional and unhelpful" by talking of a strike "when the company has not put forward any proposals on pensions yet."

BA is "midway through an exhaustive communications campaign for all 35,000 pension-plan members on the implications of the pensions deficit and there is still a long way to go. We are keen to reach an acceptable solution for all our staff which secures their pensions and protects the future of the business," the statement said.

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