In case you missed it

B.A. staff loyalty

British Airways recently suggested to their workers, that during these hard times they might like to work - for free. Many of the staff, apparently concerned about their bosses profits, seemed to think it was a good idea. From cabin crew to engineers, they donated their time and skills, up to a months work in some cases - for nothing. So, are the bosses happy, and how have the workers additional unpaid labour and efforts been received?

Well, chief executive Willie Walsh has come up with some plans. A report in the (Guardian 11 July) suggested that the airline was now looking to replace existing cabin crew with new, lower paid staff. And to save more money, it wants to make 4,000 job cuts across the workforce, plus sweeping changes to working conditions. You can't do too much for a good boss they say.


The not-so-free press

Businesses constantly have to find innovative ways of staying ahead of the competition, and the red-top newspaper industry, which creates and sells sensational stories is no exception.

Devious practices (known in the trade apparently, as the 'Black Arts') can prove expensive however. It emerged in July that News International have had to pay £700,000 to a football personality to settle a breach of privacy claim out of court. Expensive, but it buys silence. The settlement includes a gagging clause.

As this article is being penned, the story of the widespread use of private investigators for illegal hacking and phone tapping to get the dirt on people in the public eye is just emerging. The alleged involvement, or knowledge of this by Andy Coulson, ex-editor of the News of the World (and now Tory Party director of communications) and other senior tabloid figures is being questioned.

Wensley Clarkson, a journalist with years of experience in the red-tops, claims that these practices have been widespread practice for years. "When I started out, in the late 70s" he writes, "it was quite innocent - the odd £50 to a tame copper. By the 80s we'd do anything".


The business of religion

Before retiring, I was a member of the MSF union. (MSF stood for Manufacturing, Science and Finance). One month the union newsletter carried an article about how membership was being boosted by the recruitment of clergymen.

I wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking that, as neither Manufacturing nor Science covered the activities of god's representatives, could I assume-ttheir efforts were chiefly concerned with Finance? He didn't reply.

However, God apparently does have to take his finances very seriously. In common with numerous other multi-millionaires, his wealth is not what it was. And as always, it's the workers who suffer when the bosses money isn't rolling in fast enough. As a cost cutting measure, the Church of England is now looking at proposals to shed the jobs of some of my ex-fellow union membersrbishops and senior clergy.

It is concerned that the value of its investment portfolio last year was only £4.4 billion. (Yes, 4.4 billion). In 2007 it was £5.7 billion. Another proposal under consideration which might save your local bishop from having to sign on, is to encourage congregations to be more generous with their donations. Although they currently provide the C of E with £600 million a year, it has been estimated that if they contributed 5 percent of their income, an extra £300 million a year would be generated.

It has also been suggested, in all seriousness apparently, that priests should preach more about the value of generosity. The Rt Rev John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, worried about his job perhaps, is quoted as saying "A time of recession is also a time of opportunity ..."

Now that's what you call opportunism.



NW