The Unite union has appealed to the board of British Airways¹ to try to resolve the increasingly bitter dispute between the airline and its cabin crew.

英国联合工会要求英国航空董事会尽量解决航空公司与空服人员之间日趋激烈的纠纷。

Both sides of the dispute disagree on how effective the strike has been

Joint² general secretary Tony Woodley called on the chairman of BA to "stand up, take his responsibilities seriously and instigate³（鼓动，煽动） [fresh] negotiations⁴".

These talks would aim to avert⁵（避免） next weekend's planned strikes, he said.

Cabin crew are into the second day of a three-day strike. They also plan to strike for four days from 27 March.

Mr Woodley attacked the "macho（大丈夫，强壮男子） " management style of chief executive Willie Walsh and said it was time for the airline's chairman Martin Broughton and "sensible" directors to intervene（干涉，调停） .

But commentators⁶ suggested that Unite's appeal would have little effect, as BA's board would have given its backing to the airline's current negotiating position.

Despite Mr Woodley's call for negotiations, the BBC has learned that neither Unite nor BA has been in touch with the head of the Trades Union Congress (TUC英国劳工联合会议) over the weekend.

The TUC had been brokering⁷ peace talks between the two sides before the strike began on Saturday.

In a letter to union members released earlier on Sunday, Mr Woodley told crew to "stay strong... BA must understand that capitulation（投降） is not on the menu".

Unite has accused BA of intimidating⁸ and bullying⁹（恐吓） crew, allegations that BA "utterly¹⁰ rejects".

Extra flights

On the second day of action, both sides of the dispute disagreed about how effective the strike has been.

Unite said only nine of 1,100 cabin crew reported at Heathrow on Sunday and that the vast majority of planes taking off were without crew.

The union said BA's Terminal 5 at Heathrow was like a "ghost town" and argued that the airline's contingency¹¹ plans（应急计划） were failing passengers.

But BA said at least 55% of Heathrow based cabin crew reported for duty and 97% turned up for work at Gatwick.

A BA spokesperson added that not only had the airline managed to fly all those services scheduled during the strike, but that it had also reinstated（恢复） a number of flights as more staff had turned up to work than expected.

The airline said more than 60% of customers flew on Sunday.

In a video posted on BA's website and on YouTube, Mr Walsh said the atmosphere at Terminal 5 on Sunday was "very positive", with "very good numbers" of cabin crew turning up for work.

The company is advising customers to check the BA website to find out what extra flights will now be operating.