Baron
Poor social conditions? BA ground crews? You are joking, right? The pilots you criticise have poorer social conditions, with the current habit of forced draft!
These are not workers protecting their rights. If I was being harsh I would call them lazy slackers protecting their privileges, but that would be unfair. They are, however damaging BA for something over which BA has no control, and doing so illegally.
Many of the staff are heavily unionised to protect ridiculous "rights". Until recently those bus drivers were only made to drive 3 runs a day to and from the aircraft. That is fewer than many pilots fly sectors! They did fight to protect that "right", although I am not sure if they succeeded in 2002 when they did not have any sympathy in the industry downturn.