The asymmetry advantage enjoyed by the employer is not by accident.
Western economies have gradually eroded any semblance of a "new deal" and the industrial climate ensures outcomes that the corporate political donors are happy with.
As a result real wages have fallen in most industries and where resistance was encountered globalisaiton allowed outsourcing of entire industry from cars to all sorts of manufacturing.
To maintain living standards one either chose their parents well or increased the debt levels.
That most of the western economies have the personal debt levels they do is the result.
Withdrawing labour against an adversary with deep pockets is a tricky strategy.
Watching this unfold it is a surprise that BALPA had not correctly anticipated the corporate response.