20driver - you may agree with my sentiment about other jobs, but please don't tar me with your brush. I would have flown aircraft for nothing a few years ago, and still would in the right circumstance (eg flying a light aircraft to give people a ride, for disabled children etc), however, I wouldn't do it COMMERCIALLY for nothing. If you do that, all you are doing is letting rich people get richer at your expense. I need to pay the mortgage somehow and spending my time flying without earning money won't do that.
The key here is whether we are being exploited or not. I don't think for one minute that if we were flying humanitarian flights that anyone would be looking to make a stand. What we are looking at here, is hard working people, earning money for an employer, who then wants to take away a promised reward. If BA were about to go bust - different story. If BA were on the edge of profitability - different story. If other groups in BA were as lean and hard working as us - different story. The fact is that BA has wastage in plenty of areas that could be better controlled. Despite that, it is a very profitable company. Why should our promised deferred pay be taken from us, when BA are a profitable company and can afford, at least, to give us a fair, reasonable deal?
Sean - if Etihad opened a base at LHR, it wouldn't have that much affect on BA. They could only take a handful of pilots in comparison to BA's total, so the dent wouldn't be sufficient to change conditions much. Secondly, if people did go to another airline, it would be a fairly fast thing, wheras changing conditions is not. We would have to wait a significant time for things to change and by that time irreversible damage may have been done to the pension, hence the need to fight now!
In my view the changes made to the pension must be reversible.