For chickenscanfly and others who wonder about the history of DanAir and Balpa.
DanAir was about to go into voluntary liquidation in the aftermath of debts owed to it by the failed tour group Intasun and the airline Air Europe (DanAir serviced AE aircraft and flew 30% of Intasun passengers) and the recession/fuel crisis of the first Gulf War. British Airways wanted to prevent another scheduled competitor at LGW and was able to absorb about 10 DAN 737 300/400 into their LGW scheduled services, but didn't want the 30 other aircraft that DAN operated.
DanAir (now BA Euro Ops LGW under BA management ie under Mike Street, now famous for presiding over the recent BA summer troubles at LHR) decided to keep only existing DA 737 -3/400 pilots, despite a long standing signed agreement on how to carry out any redundancies that may be required at DAN. The long standing agreement was for first in/lastout as per seniority order.
BA management made a mess off their industrial relations, it was their fault. Unfortunately Balpa decided that a softly/softly approach to management was required, despite the obvious remedy which was immediate legal action in the industrial courts for breach of redundancy contract under the rules for the takeover of the workforce of other companies.
Eventually, after about a year Balpa did take legal action (but only due to severe pressure from members), but by then it was too late - the wrong pilots were out of a job. The case was settled out of court on the steps of the court on the day of the hearing and all redundant pilots in the union received the maximum penalty that a court could have awarded. They didn't keep their jobs - it was three years after the event by then.
The most senior DAN pilot (with 30 years service) ended up being made redundant, and the most junior pilot ( who had been with DAN for less than 1 year) went into BA and is still there now as a mainline BA captain.
Nobody who is ex DAN trusts BA management to deal with individuals fairly (neither do BA crews either !), and many with long memories wonder if Balpa is capable of handling really big issues that strike at the heart of what should be a fair and just society.
I like to think that things will be better next time, because more than half of Balpa members are from independent airlines now.
The RyanAir issues are not really the same as the DAN problem. Balpa is not perfect, but it is great to have strenth in numbers when dealing with the likes of MOL. Having a relationship with Irish Unoins etc makes it even better. If you get 90% membership, MOL will have to at least listen.