British Airways faces tense talks with union representatives tomorrow after staff overwhelmingly rejected the airline’s cost-cutting proposals.

A meeting of about 2,000 BA workers at Kempton Park racecourse yesterday discussed the plan to cut 3,700 jobs, freeze pay for all staff and change working conditions.

A spokeswoman for the Unite union, which represents most of the workers, said they had “overwhelmingly rejected the company’s plan and there was overwhelming support for the union’s alternative proposal”.

She described BA’s cost-cutting drive as “an opportunistic use of the recession” to shed jobs.

Unite has proposed saving £130 million by freezing pay for two years and introducing a limited voluntary redundancy plan.

BA wants big changes to cabin crew terms and conditions, including reducing holiday allocation and travel allowances. It also wants to freeze pay and cut jobs, either through voluntary or compulsory redundancy.

Of the 3,700 proposed job cuts, about 2,000 would come from cabin crew and a further 1,000 from check-in, administrative and clerical staff. The revolt comes ahead of talks between BA and unions at Acas, the conciliation service, tomorrow.

The airline had given the unions until the end of June to agree to changes, but both sides have agreed to resume talks through Acas. A spokesman for BA said that it was focusing on tomorrow’s negotiations.

BA has been badly hit by the slump in the travel industry and last week revealed plans to cut its annual capital expenditure by 20 per cent.

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of BA, has made clear that the airline is fighting for its survival. He is working for free this month to highlight the carrier’s difficulties.

About 7,000 BA staff have volunteered to take unpaid leave or work fewer hours and 800 will also work unpaid this month.

Unite has described BA’s costcutting proposals as the most profound for staff in a generation.

• EasyJet, the low-cost airline, increased passenger numbers by 0.8 per cent to 4.15 million in June, compared with the same month last year. The “load factor”, a measure of how full each flight is, fell by 0.6 per cent to 86.3 per cent.

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