YOUR VIEWS

Viewpoint, Friday May 21

RAY Fleming voices concern that employee's right to strike is under threat in the BA dispute. I use the word employees deliberately, rather than ‘workers' as Ray does as it is so politicised. Anyone providing their labour to a privately owned company from the management down is an employee of it unless they own it.

Employees should always have the right to withdraw their labour - that accords with the fundamental right of freedom of choice. If employees have the right to strike by withdrawing their labour, then company managers (elected by the owners to run their companies) should equally have the right to adapt the company they are responsible for to market conditions in order to remain competitive. So if employees have the right to strike should employers not have the right to replace them with employees who are prepared to accept their terms and working conditions?

Nobody forces BA cabin staff to work for BA - there are plenty of people who would gladly replace them under new conditions – and BA staff of course have the ultimate choice of taking their labour elsewhere and work for other employers whose working conditions and payment structures suit them better. But here's the rub, they can't because other airlines have had to adapt to remain competitive and their employees have accepted change.

I often wonder if Ray is against free market conditions and indeed freedom of choice, because ‘workers' and ‘Unions' are not about change, moreover where Unions steadfastly resist change - which is a fact of life – we often see those organisations fail. Passengers will be temporarily disrupted, but they have the ultimate choice and they can and will go else where. So who will suffer? There is a side of me that wishes BA goes to the wall and then there will be no more disputes and disruption and BA employees won't have employment. The irony of this scenario is that the employers are fighting for changes to prevent this situation happening by remaining uncompetitive.

Private companies are run by their owners or whoever they delegate to run them, not by their employees or their Unions who don't own them. If people don't like this then don't work for them, exercise your freedom and form a co-operative, buy them or do it yourself if you think you can do it better. That's the ultimate freedom of choice which a democracy gives the individual and they can then deploy their labour as they wish.

Andy Pratt, Palma

Dear Sir,

In reply to Mr King's letter (15th) regarding rugby I would like to put a few things straight.
Firstly I would like to congratulate the non-resident organiser of the very successful beach rugby festival and hope that it was a financial success for him and so will continue in future years. Mr King was incorrect to say that no representative of Snr Delgado's Calvià council “popped by to say hello” because PP councilor, Kate Mentink (as she has been the council's representative in the previous tournaments) was certainly there.

Mr King may disagree with what he described as a “jolly” by the Carlos Delgado team to the UK but he cannot deny that a rugby pitch is being built in Son Caliu under the auspices of mayor Delgado; the first council funded and supported rugby ground in the Balearics. Not wanting to belittle beach rugby, the commitment and investment in the Son Caliu rugby facility will allow rugby to be played the whole year through and opens a massive tourism market of rugby players and supporters that are universally known to be above average spenders.

Those of you who read Mr King's letter should question his motives for putting pen to paper as it smacks of how the cricket club was used as a “political football” in the run up to the previous council elections in 2007!

John Rule - Sol de Mallorca