'Spring of discontent' strikes blow to Gordon Brown

A BA strike began at midnight following the collapse of last-ditch talks, hours after the signallers announced they had voted in favour of the first national train strike in 16 years.

The Conservatives described the acrimonious twin disputes as threatening a "spring of discontent" that could scupper the Labour government's re-election hopes.

More than half of BA's flights will be grounded by the three-day walkout. The airline, which is suffering its first official strike for 13 years, warned of knock-on disruption lasting into next week, ahead of a second, four-day stoppage starting next Saturday.

The strikes over cost-cutting will slash the number of flights between Scotland and Heathrow and Gatwick, with only one in eight flying tomorrow and none operating between Heathrow and Edinburgh or Glasgow today.

Further strikes have been threatened after 14 April.

The failure of two days of peace talks between BA chief executive Willie Walsh and leaders of the Unite union came as signallers became the third group of rail staff to vote for a strike. Unions will decide next week whether to call the first Britain-wide rail strikes since 1994, although they have agreed to refer the dispute with Network Rail to conciliation service Acas.

In a sign of BA management's rising frustration, Mr Walsh recorded a video message on YouTube, in which he told passengers: "I am deeply sorry. This is a terrible day for BA."

The Tories continued to try to make capital out of the strike to embarrass Labour, having highlighted Unite as the party's major paymaster. Unite political director Charlie Whelan was a spokesman for Gordon Brown when he was chancellor.

Shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said the BA strike and threatened disruption on the railways meant Britain was facing "Labour's spring of discontent" – a reference to the stoppages during the 1978-9 "winter of discontent" that helped to bring down the then Labour government.

She said: "Gordon Brown should do all he can to urge Unite – who are funding his general election campaign – to call off the strike. Or he should stop taking their money."

Tory leader David Cameron will go on the offensive in a speech in London today, when he is expected to say the BA strike "threatens the future of one of Britain's greatest companies, along with thousands of jobs".

He will add: "But will the Prime Minister come out in support of those people who would cross the picket line? No – because the Unite union is bankrolling the Labour Party. From the BA strike to public sector reform and his approach to the City of London, Gordon Brown has consistently given in to special interest groups and shown that he is unable to deliver the change that the country needs."

As he waited for a flight at Gatwick, Ben Wood, from Berkshire, whose family is facing the cancellation of two holidays if the second BA strike goes ahead, said: "I haven't met a single person who has any sympathy with the strikers at all, and I think they are completely underestimating the sentiment of the general public to this action.

"Cabin crew say there are two sides to the story, but it's clear that change has to come – it's painful for everybody."

As he had left yesterday's failed talks, Mr Walsh described the strike as "completely unjustified".

He said: "It is deeply regrettable that a proposal I have tabled to Unite, which I believe is fair and sensible and addresses all the concerns of cabin crew, has not been accepted."

The offer involved a four-year pay deal comprising a wage freeze in the first year, 3 per cent increases in the following two, and an increase in 2013-14 of up to 4 per cent, based on RPI inflation. Staff would also have to agree not to strike in that period.

However, Mr Walsh said he also wanted to "fundamentally change the industrial relations environment" within three months, and that had to start with a "radical, far-reaching review of our current ways of working".

Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley, who had expressed optimism yesterday morning that a deal would be reached, said he was "extremely disappointed", and accused the airline of wanting a "war" with the union.

He said "hawks" on the BA board had won the day.

Mr Woodley said the airline had tabled a worse offer than the one withdrawn last week after the strikes were announced. He said: "It is an absolute disgrace and an insult to our people that he (Mr Walsh] tabled a deal that reduced the amount of pay on offer."

BA hopes to fly 65 per cent of its passengers during the first three-day strike, using volunteer cabin crew, 23 aircraft leased from other firms and seats on other airlines.

However, it has cancelled 1,100 of its 1,950 flights during the stoppage, and only one-third of Heathrow's short-haul services will operate and half of Gatwick's.

Flights to and from London City airport, including Edinburgh and Glasgow services, are unaffected, because they are operated by BA's CityFlyer subsidiary.

Mr Walsh said: "We will continue to strengthen our contingency plans to ensure that as many customers as possible can fly to their destinations during the strike period."

However, BA admitted the strike would cause knock-on cancellations next week. It has already axed some flights on all five affected Scotland-London routes on Tuesday – in many cases, the popular first service of the day – while two services on the Aberdeen-Heathrow route have already been cancelled for Wednesday.

A BA spokeswoman said: "There may be a knock-on effect after the strike, and we have published details on our website of what passengers can do if their flight is cancelled."

Bmi, which competes with BA on Scotland-Heathrow routes, said it was putting on larger aircraft and expected to carry 8,000 BA passengers during the strike.

Unite plans to mount picket lines at several entrances to Heathrow, BA's main base.

BA's cost-cutting plans aim to save 62 million, and they include reducing the number of crew on long-haul flights. It follows the airline's record losses of 401m in year to last April and 292m for the six months to last September.

Analysts estimate BA has already lost more than 25m because of cancelled bookings and the cost of contingency measures, such as leasing extra aircraft.

However, they said the airline was at greater risk of reputational damage than financial instability, because of its vast cash reserves.

Mr Walsh said he had "no concern whatsoever" about the threat of solidarity action in other countries, after unions representing ground crew and plane servicing workers in the United States, Spain and Germany indicated they might join a walkout.

A No10 spokesman said: "The Prime Minister believes that this strike is in no-one's interest and will cause unacceptable inconvenience to passengers. He urges the strike be called off immediately.

"He also urges BA's management and workforce to get together without delay to resolve what is a dispute about jobs and wages."