| Full name | British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association |
|---|---|
| Members | 9,000+ |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Affiliation | Unite the Union TUC |
| Key people | Chairperson: Lizanne Malone |
| Office location | Middlesex, England |
| Website | BASSA.co.uk |
The British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (BASSA) is a branch of the British trade union Unite.
BASSA was originally formed exclusively for British Airways (BA) cabin crew.
BASSA now has other branches representing cabin crew at other airlines. Branch 1/1117 is for Thomson Airways cabin crew.[1]
Originally part of the Transport and General Workers' Union (T&GWU), BASSA is now part of Unite. Membership is falling from a high point of over 11,000 in 2009. At 8 August 2010 membership stood at 9,555; one month later on 8 September 2010 membership stood at 9,279 before this information was removed from the website and updated to read "about 10,000". This still makes BASSA one of the largest branches of Unite.[2]
BASSA is managed by a committee of wholly elected representatives, which disproportionally consists in the main of CSDs and Pursers from the Heathrow World Wide fleet, all of whom are usually operational staff with their airline, though two are on disciplinary charges for gross misconduct. As at August 2010, Duncan Holley, the Branch Secretary, is the exception to this rule, and remains in his BASSA role despite having been sacked from British Airways for gross misconduct.
The current chairperson is Lizanne Malone, a BA Cabin Services Director, who has not worked operationally for over a year, and who married an American, resides in Los Angeles, California.[3]
Headquartered at the Unite offices at Harlington, Middlesex, BASSA has support offices in Abbey House at Heathrow Airport, and in Jubilee House at Gatwick Airport. BASSA provides a secure website to service its members, 10% of whom reside overseas.[4]
As of February 2010, BASSA is facing competition from the newly formed Professional Cabin Crew Council.[5]