Droopystop,
Balpa will do nothing for you unless you and your colleagues are prepared to put in a lot of effort. Basically, at company level Balpa consists of a Company Council who are all democratically elected volunteers. These are the people who will meet with company representatives on whatever business you choose. Balpa head office will supply expert guidance in the form of professional negotiators, legal eagles etc., to keep you within the law, but the direction you take is down to you, the workforce, no-one else. No agreement can be ratified without your approval. The North Sea pay dispute was handled on those terms. The workforce told the CC and the Association negotiator what they wanted from the company; they then went to the negotiating table and were able to present us with an offer from the company. It was rejected by us, to cut a long story short we were eventually able to come to an agreement with the company, which we, the members accepted. So if a bad deal had been negotiated it would have been our own fault for allowing it to happen.
Maxng,
Totally agree with you, and would you ask your driver not to block my Aston Martin when he parks in the company car park?
Power to the people,
Chopperman.