British Airways chief Willie Walsh: 'a reasonable man gets nowhere in negotiations'

The Aer Lingus trade unions are unlikely to resort to such knuckleheaded tactics as those pushed by British Airways staff last week via their union, Unite.

Threatening to inconvenience one million people by going on strike for 12 days at Christmas is not a worthwhile option given the public backlash and Unite was either naïve or stupid to opt for such brinksmanship. Even British prime minister Gordon Brown had to come out and say how worried he was by the prospect of a strike.

Unite's stance gave the airline's Irish chief executive, Willie Walsh, a veteran of union disputes at Aer Lingus, the chance to take the moral high ground; it turned the focus away from the airline and its many problems and onto the union.

Reports also suggest that the staff wanted to strike for only three days at a time instead of the 12 days the union came out with. BA was later granted a High Court injunction to prevent the strikes by cabin crew.

This round goes to the Irishman, who once famously said that "a reasonable man gets nowhere in negotiations".

Derek Simpson, who jointly leads the union, had another way of describing BA's tactics on new working arrangements, dubbing them "macho management". His assertion that "it was never our intention to disrupt passengers" must have raised eyebrows among the airline's customers.