- guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 March 2010 14.27 GMT
Unite members erect banners in support of BA cabin crew at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey, racecourse in Surrey ahead of the union's mass meeting today. Photograph: Geoff Caddick/AFP/Getty Images
A three-day walkout by cabin crew at British Airways will go ahead at midnight tonight after last-ditch talks aimed at averting the strike collapsed.
The BA chief executive, Willie Walsh, and the joint general secretary of Unite, Tony Woodley, had been locked in hours of talks said to have been balanced on a knife-edge, but at 2pm Woodley emerged to say the strike would go ahead. A second four-day strike is scheduled to begin on 27 March.
Woodley said he was "extremely disappointed" that the strikes will go ahead and accused BA of tabling a worse offer, while Walsh described the industrial action as "completely unjustified".
The transport secretary, Lord Adonis, said: "It is disappointing that the talks have broken down. This strike is in no one's interests and will cause major inconvenience to passengers.
"Clearly, passengers travelling in the next few days will need to check with BA on the status of their flights. I continue to urge both sides to find a negotiated settlement."
Woodley claimed that BA had tabled a worse offer than one which had been offered last week.
"I am extremely disappointed for the travelling public and our members, but this union will now support our members, while remaining open for talks with the company," he said.
"It is with great disappointment that I have to say the strike will go ahead. It is an absolute disgrace and an insult to our people that he [Walsh] tabled a deal that reduced the amount of pay on offer.
"It is ridiculous to expect anyone to go to their membership with a worse offer."
Leaving the TUC building a few minutes after Woodley, Walsh admitted the new deal was not the same as the one offered previously.
He said the financial value of the new offer was not as attractive because BA had to recover the money it had lost. The company had incurred "significant" extra expense because of the cost of its contingency plans and the number of passengers who had cancelled flights, Walsh said.
He added: "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"The offer remains available, but it will be withdrawn once industrial action commences. Tens of thousands of BA people now stand ready to serve our customers. BA will be flying tomorrow and will continue to fly through these periods of industrial action.
"I remain available to talk, but our business must make changes. I am disappointed that the union have not been able to accept our sensible proposals."
There had been hope earlier in the day of a deal, with differences between the two sides apparently centred on disciplinary procedures against 38 BA staff and plans to put new cabin crew recruits on a separate fleet and on a different pay structure.
Before the talks' collapse, hundreds of BA cabin crew were briefed by Unite at Sandown racecourse in Esher, Surrey.
Unite handed out an information sheet to all staff explaining their legal rights should they strike.
Speaking outside Sandown's main hall, one female cabin service director – the rank that runs inflight service mid-air – claimed staff would have accepted reductions in crew numbers had BA negotiated the move.
"I have had all this extra workload, doing my own job and working a trolley. I can't tell you how exhausted I am. But I would very happily take that role on had it been discussed. We do appreciate the climate that we are in."
BA says it gave Unite ample chance to negotiate changes and was forced to introduce the alterations, which do not break contractual law, because of union foot-dragging. The changes have saved BA an estimated £62.5m and Unite is attempting to thrash out a deal that saves the same amount of money but puts more crew members back on flights.
An airline spokeswoman said: "The fact is customers have had the opportunity to take action – either their flight is still going, or we've put them on another airline or they've received a refund or they've rebooked for a later date, so to all intents and purposes customers have had this information for several days and they've taken action." .
It is understood that the face-to-face talks over the planned strike started badly on Thursday when Walsh submitted a new offer that was flatly rejected by Woodley. Walsh claimed the threat of strike action had cost the national carrier £27m and led to the loss of 103,000 passengers.
But some of their differences appeared to have been surmounted by the evening, leaving a few outstanding issues.
BA has pledged to fly 65% of its passengers to their destinations by using a fleet of chartered jets and 1,000 volunteer cabin crew.
This morning the airline ran a full-page advert in several newspapers, insisting "BA is working hard to keep the flag flying," and saying the union's planned strike would not just hit the airline but the country, too.
"I believe that Unite has made the wrong decision and misjudged the mood of our times. During Unite's forthcoming strike, the majority of people who work for British Airways will be doing their utmost to minimise disruption to our customers," Walsh said.
"We have a significant number of cabin crew who don't believe in the strike and will continue to work. They will be supported by countless volunteers from across our airline."