A total of 12,000 British Airways (BA) employees will go on strike on midnight after last-minute talks between the loss-making airline and the Unite union failed on Friday.

Unite's joint general secretary, Tony Woodley, said the airline "does not want to negotiate and ultimately wants to go to war with this union."

"I am extremely disappointed for the travelling public and our members, but this union will now support our members, while remaining open for talks with the company," he said.

The first walkout will continue through March 22, with another four-day strike to begin next Friday. The union pledged more strikes after April 14 if the sides again fail to come to terms.

BA chief Willie Walsh said it was "deeply regrettable" that the union rejected the airline's proposals, and pledged to minimize the number of disrupted flights.

"Tens of thousands of BA people stand ready to serve our passengers and BA will be flying and will continue to fly through these periods of industrial action," he said.

BA announced the cancellation of 1,100 flights out of the 1,950 scheduled for the three days of the first strike.

The company's losses from canceled tickets and the lease of several fully crewed planes from other air carriers are estimated at 27 million pounds (over $40.5 million).

Tensions between BA and Unite began in 2009, when the company said it would reduce cabin crew for long-haul flights from 15 to 14, making 1,000 full-time cabin crew staff redundant. It also announced that 3,000 other employees will switch to part, while salary growth would be frozen through 2010.

LONDON, March 19 (RIA Novosti)