British Airways could be looking at a new strike threat in the new year, according to union bosses. This message comes as the planned 12 day walkout over Christmas was considered illegal at the end of last week. The Unite union said that it would ballot crew members again in the New Year.

British Airways and the Unite union are due to appear before the High Court again next year on February 1^st. This time they will be taking a look to decide whether the airline’s new working practices are a change to crew contracts. It is very likely that the union will wait for the decision before they decide to do another ballot for industrial action.

The union just recently released a statement that said that British Airways must accept that there can be no other kind of resolution than that which can only be reached through negotiations. Without negotiation there will inevitably be a further ballot for industrial action. Given the clear mood of cabin crew members about the management’s imposition of changes on their working conditions, the union is led to think that another ballot is a must.

Unite said that it would be polling members again for industrial action after the Christmas season. Another ballot would take a few months for the union to put together. The High Court ruled in favor of British Airways after learning that some of the crew members who voted for the industrial action had already taken voluntary redundancies. Thus, they no longer worked for the company in the first place.