Private investigators and strikes

British Airways paid £1m to hush up the details of a spying operation in which the phones and emails of its own cabin staff were allegedly improperly accessed during a bitter dispute with Britain’s largest union...

 

See British Airways 'spying' scandal: How the world's most famous airline spied on its own staff (James Cusik, The Independent) for more details.

Oil tanker dispute video

This is a story big in the news today.

Here the employee side of the dispute through this video produced by the UNITE trade union.

Internet McCarthyism?

Internet McCarthyism - this is the term used by the Unite trade union towards British Airways, who have recently suspended 15 flight attendants for writing Facebook comments and sending private emails about a "name and shame" list of pilots who volunteered to help break possible upcoming strikes.

It seems a very messy affair that is perhaps best understood by reading the following article - BA suspends cabin staff in Facebook row over list of strike-breaking pilots (by Caroline Davis, The Guardian).

Web 2.0 and the threat to 'employer brand'

In the current People Magazine (20 March 2008) Lucy Phillips has a go at bloggers, pressure groups and trade unions.

It seems that employers are getting a bit fed up because they spend so much time and money building a corporate image, and then troublemakers go spoiling their private party. Doh!

Examples given include bloggers who spill the beans, Unite running a campaign against Marks and Spencer (based on poor treatment of workers), which in themselves are pretty poor examples in the first place.

Since when has it been wrong to criticise the civil service, and since when is it okay for employers to don ear muffs at the first accusation of a wrongdoing?

I'm quite glad to hear later on in the article that employers have no special forms of protection in this domain.

Perhaps employers should consult their employees about brand image and be less selective as to what constitutes their brand.

If so, they wouldn't have much to worry about.

See Control, alt or delete... for more details.