I think that some people are under the impression that BALPA can click their fingers and stop Companies do what they want to do in their tracks!!
BALPA isn't perfect by any means but to accuse reps of doing it for more days off is ridiculous, I was a rep (not VS) and not only did it consume far more time than just the allocated days, it was stressful, and lost me shed loads of money by not flying so much.