Brother:
According to the Bristow CC they were put in the position of recommending the deal for a couple of reasons:
1. because the membership wanted to know what was on offer as there had been a gagging order in force by the management
2. because the company were going to refuse to put on the table the offer that we were shown if BALPA did not recommend the offer.
According to the BAPLA IRO (or whatever he is called) at a members meeting, this is quite normal in negotiations and then it is up to the members to decide (as we have) that it is not acceptable.
We can now give the CC a new mandate so that the management are aware that the offer just isn't good enough.
To me, the CC got the best deal that they could at the time even if they had to "recommend" it to us, as I guess they couldn't get anything better. We didn't like it and we have said so very strongly judging by the figures above.
The main problem is that we are all new to pay ngotiation dealings and we all have to learn as we go along.