British Airways strike enters third day

British Airways flights will be disrupted for a third day today by a strike action by cabin crew, with no sign of talks to broker a solution. Company chief executive Willie Walsh insisted that the airline had been able to carry 60 per cent of booked passengers and that it had been able to add flights to its expected schedules because of the number of cabin crew breaking the strike. Unite's joint general secretary, Tony Woodley, sought to bypass Walsh and urged members of the British Airways board to become directly involved in the dispute and prevent the four-day action due from next weekend. In an increasingly personal dispute, many of the cabin crew picketing Heathrow wore Willie Walsh face masks, with some showing him wearing a Hitler mustache, along with placards comparing his salary to theirs. The Conservative Party sought to secure political advantage from the dispute, given Labor's links with Unite–which has given it £13 million over the last four years, and is now its largest donor, by a margin. In a new poster, the Conservatives attacked prime minister Gordon Brown for not becoming directly involved. Depicting Mr Brown in a cabin crew uniform, it declares "Gordon's doing sweet BA".