They don't need an excuse. They can do what they like. At the end they have you guys by the short and curly's. You have nothing to bargain with at all right now. There are hundreds of guys with EASA licences, type ratings, experience on type, recency, Police clearance etc returning from the middle east needing "any" job, and now. Anybody suggesting that BALPA have chips to play is deceiving himself.
WW is in an awfully difficult position as well. I'm sure he is s........ himself. He wants to take this opportunity to roll over your salaries, he'll never get this chance again. However he knows that he may need to make real this threat of firing the lot of you, but then how in the heck does he get enough of you/ex-Emirates guys back into the flight deck to restart operations in August or September.
MOL would just fire you. No messing around. You'd already be gone.
This is Interesting. What is going to happen??