A war of words has erupted between British Airways and union leaders ahead of crucial talks aimed at averting a series of crippling Christmas strikes by thousands of cabin crew.
Unite's joint leaders Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson will meet the airline's bosses to try to find a breakthrough in a bitter row over jobs, pay and working conditions.
BA said it offered to meet the union "without preconditions", but made clear it could not "undo" changes already implemented, including a reduction in crew on long-haul flights.
Mr Woodley called on BA to suspend the "imposition" of the changes, saying that would lead to the strike being called off.
He said union leaders offered a "pause for peace" last week if the changes to terms and conditions did not go ahead, adding that he was making the same offer again. "We don't want a dispute and neither do our members, but we are not prepared to see major changes to terms and conditions imposed on our members."
A BA spokesman said changes to crew numbers had already been made and followed requests for 1,000 voluntary redundancies and 3,000 workers wanting to switch to part-time contracts.
"Those posts have gone out of the business - the union knows that. We cannot undo the changes. The union is arguing that the changes are contractual and we say there are not. This will be tested in a court case in February, so why is the union having a strike over Christmas?"
A Unite spokesman said: "We are glad that BA management has seen sense and we hope we can now move from confrontation to negotiation and get the dispute resolved."
BA is pressing ahead with a legal challenge at the High Court to Unite's ballot of its 12,500 cabin crew members, claiming that some workers who had left the company took part in the voting.
Thousands of cabin crew are due to strike for 12 days from next Tuesday to January 2, threatening travel misery for a million passengers at a cost of tens of millions of pounds to the airline.
