I suppose what I'm saying is that I (along with many many others, including ex Dan-Air employees, GSS, the list is long and distinguished) am dismayed and disgusted by the totally selfish attitude of BA mainline pilots to anyone not in their cosy little club. I am well aware that there was and is no legal obligation upon any mainline pilot to support anyone but themselves, however it has beggared belief how deliberately obstructive and deliberately unhelpful and arrogant they have been from the beginning of our (BRAL/Brymon) relationship with them.
The pension is really just the endgame. As a very newly recognised BALPA organisation, our guys, although keen, were neophytes to the game of negotiating with Mainline management and mainline pilots. At least mainline mangement, cr@p though they are and were, acknowledged they were involved with us. Not so the mainline pilots. It would have hurt no-one had BRAL/Brymon people been added to the very bottom of the BA seniority list, but mainline actually opposed the issue, and managed through some slick presentation to force BRAL cc to reject a completely unacceptable offer. The point is, as with the pensions issue, they cared not one jot ethically or personally for a Company which had just been bought, and asset stripped of nearly 2200 LHR slots per year. OK, they didn't HAVE to, but the point is, they were not interested in looking outside their own cosy little pool. I'm not going to dredge all that back up again, it's been explained by better people than me, and refuted by, er, well, Solo, Top Bunk and Tandem Rotor. Water under the bridge - my point is that the present pensions crisis was completely avoidable, because if BA CC had listened to their poorer cousins some years ago, we might not be here today. That is what is so annoying - it's bad enough being shafted by BA management, it's far far worse being shafted selfishly and deliberately by fellow (ha ha) pilots. Don't expect me to hoot in support as I pass the picket line, I'm more likely to be giving an expose to a friendly journalist about the ridiculous unjustifiable BA salaries, and explaining why they should not expect any help or support any more than they handed out.
