I hope so Carnage, I really do, but I've seen little evidence of it yet. BALPA are forever on the back foot, valiant efforts notwithstanding, and I think BA know this.
The savings BA can make from us are still substantial and I perceive that we will be targetted for them as a relatively easy nut to crack.
Opinions in Waterworld about us vary, but I have heard plenty, (from in flight services I admit), of the derogatory variety.
In my humble opinion the levels of productivity being given since the new pay deal, (rumoured recent boast of flight manager - "we've seen a 12% increase in productivity for next to nothing on our part"), are nearly unsustainable in the long term.
People need a life at home away from work, and perhaps the recent Virgin 750 hour a year deal acknowledges that.
Of all UK airlines BA has perhaps the most consistent very high levels of time away from home, and at these work levels a toll is being extracted on human relationships that can't be sustained in the longer term.
I predict that before long BALPA will be pushed by its membership into seeking substantial work level reductions, even at the cost of lower pay.
You cant spend money in a graveyard, and divorce tends to be expensive both emotionally and financially.
However high some areas of Waterworld's perceptions of us are, (and I'd love concrete evidence of this), the fact remains that flight ops mangement hold us in near open contempt, and the result is a new level of brazen dissent on such as the BALPA forum. There is a level of antipathy I have never seen before.
We shall see, but I predict grim times ahead for us, and I still doubt the combined resolve of the BA pilot workforce and so, at heart, does the BACC, I suspect.
I'll be staying and fighting until the battle is demonstrably lost, fwiw.