C_8 - If I've never had a single good word to say about my employer then I suggest you ought to read my first post on this thread. Whilst you seem to look down on people who, in your words, "have little or no appreciation of the realities of aviation outside of BA", might I remind you that you are not working in the world of aviation outside of BA. You are working for BA now, which historically has had better terms of employment for its pilots than the rest of the UK industry. Those terms were not achieved by looking at the UK outside BA and saying"Oh how lucky we are". Had we adopted that approach we'd be negotiating down to the levels of our cheapest competitors, not negotiating upwards like Virgin did (incidentally, they did that using the benchmarking data compiled by the BACC).
You may believe that "no company can afford to stand too far away from the lowest common denominator these days", but I suggest you take a look at BAs accounts, as many before you have done over many years, and consider the cost base and productivity of the Flight Ops department compared to BA's overall turnover. Then compare that data to those of our major competitors. If you email your BALPA reps you may even get hold of the latest benchmarking data. You'll find that we're rather good value compared to our (profitable) international competitors. Attempts to screw yet more pennies from us are driven primarily by management desires to reach their bonus targets rather than the likelihood of making any significant contribution to profitability. Perhaps in another year when you've sat out a de-icing fiasco at LHR, a two week cancellation spree after snow in the USA leaves us 'short' of cabin crew, and another ground staff walk out you'll be less inclined to believe that profitability has to come directly out of your pocket.