**Transport Secretary Lord Adonis has attacked the planned strike by British Airways cabin crew staff, calling it “totally unjustified”.**He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that the strike posed a threat “to the future of one of our great companies in this country”.
Members of the Unite union are due to strike for three days from 20 March and for four days from 27 March.
The dispute is over reduced staffing levels and pay at the airline.
BA says the cabin crew changes it imposed last November are vital cost-cutting measures to secure the airline’s future and return it to profitability.
The Unite union and its members say the changes are disproportionate.
‘Deplore’
“Let’s be absolutely clear the stakes are incredibly high in this strike and I absolutely deplore the strike,” said Lord Adonis.
"It is not only the damage it’s going to do to passengers and the inconvenience it’s going to cause - which is quite disproportionate to the issues at stake - but also the threat it poses to the future of one of our great companies in this country.
“It’s totally unjustified, this strike, on the merits of the issues at stake and I do call on the union to engage constructively with the company.”
Lord Adonis’s comments are in contrast to the more conciliatory words used by Prime Minister Gordon Brown when the strike dates were announced on Friday.
Urging the two sides to resume negotiations, the prime minister warned them “of the danger and risk to the British economy of disruptive strikes going ahead”.
Unite has confirmed it will not strike over Easter, but warned there could be further action after 14 April if a resolution with BA is not agreed.
BA boss Willie Walsh said on Friday that the two parties were “not close at all” to coming to an agreement.