mincer,
I am cc and I am here having a discussion. All industries at present are doing their best to keep alive their jobs for the future. Car industries going down to a 3 day week for example.
You really need to look at the bigger picture. For BA to survive, they need to compete in the market and the only way they can do that is by looking at what other carriers' T&Cs are to reduce costs. If I moan, then the only words of sympathy I get are "Go across the road to BA, no hard feelings".
The truth is that T&Cs cuts for even the big legacy carriers are occuring not just for CC but also for the flight deck. Take easyJet for example. They have always been that slightly better in terms of service than Ryanair, their nearest competitor. But since MOL had reduced the airline to nothing more than a bus service (which people don't seem to mind when you see how "successful" they are) EJ have had to do the same thing - starting off with the limit on how much water pilots can drink and getting CC to bring their own tea-bags!
I can't speak for all CC but you don't do this for the money. I only fly Long Haul, haven't had a relationship that has lasted more than 3 weeks in the last 4 years and get less money than my friends in an office job working as 7 quid an hour secretaries. But I wouldn't change it because I enjoy what I'm doing.
Don't tell the bearded guy this but I have worked out that I can forfeit about 75p per hour before I would have to call it a day because I simply could not afford to live! Up to that point, I would not mind a reduction as I would have my job protected and hopefully would have safeguarded a lot of my colleagues.