Your union even lost its B@LLS and backed out.
Continuing to pursue to the High Court is the complete opposite of backing out. It was doggedly pursued to ensure a precedent was not set. The fact that it failed was as a result of a legal judgement and not due to backing out.
There are some great crew about, and frankly - regardless of the competitive position - the current wage for many (especially Gatwick) is low compared to the intelligence and motivation of many current crew.
However, there is a minority of overpaid, old, union stalwarts whose incessant moaning and lack of motivation is to the severe detriment of the operation and not conducive of a fun, team-based environment that it is supposed to be. Furthermore, the extreme arrogance of this exact group in claiming their superiority is in direct contrast to the quality of operation that they actually do provide, and is a direct insult not only to newer BA crew, but those professionals from outside the airline on much lesser salaries. The direct failure of BASSA in this regard has been to create gold-plated old contracts alongside newer-contract employees with differing motivations and priorities as a result.
The sooner the overpaid, older bunch are handed a P45 (with great regret to the change in lifestyle that will cause), the better.
Simple solution to the issue would be:
- Let Ops run the operation, not the union, giving Captains the right of say over whether a crew works or not (it is the flight crew only who face legal restrictions on operations, hence they who should determine use of discretion)
- Replace all allowances with duty pay, as flight crew have done, resulting in elimination of many supporting accountant roles that are unnecessary (and corruption in trip selection)
- Introduce bidding, permitting lifestyle choices and minimising sickness (as crew actually feel valued and have had a chance to actually bid for the days they require off)
- Marry cabin crew productivity requirements with that of flight crew, permitting crews to work effectively as one and eliminating animosity that is dangerous to flight safety (SFO nightstops would not be legal for flight crew, and would be so tiring as to infringe flight safety if cabin crew had to evacuate on the return leg, in my opinion).