ShortFinalFred - very well said my man! Isn't it funny how we never get this sort of nonsense from the guys at Virgin, bmi, Britannia, Easyjet.
Corelli - I'll discuss BA cadets superceding BRAL pilots on BRAL aircraft. Were, or were not, BRAL short of pilots. Do BRAL have less pilots now than they did when the cadets started? Which do you think would be the better option for BRAL: put ex-BA cadets on BRAL aircraft to meet the shortfall knowing they can be packed off to BA without compensation, or hiring experienced pilots to fill the gap then laying them off with redundancy packages when the company contracted?
Now on the subject of the BARPS FOs, I don't know what they say to their Captains but they are quite willing to say on the BA BALPA forum, without the protection of anonymity, that they will not be striking to support NAPS. Their position is fully understood. If you think we are in for some sort of a surprise from the guys then you are the one who is sadly mistaken. I say again, we do not require or expect the support of the BARPS pilots. I'd also suggest you refrain from associating your views with those of the former BACX pilots who've recently joined BA. Somehow I doubt they'd have joined the company if they shared your vehement hatred of BA pilots.
Sympathy? Well you know where to find that in the dictionary. You clearly believe that somehow the support of BACX pilots is necessary for BA pilots to succeed. It isn't.
What would I have done had I been faced with the position of just a few being permitted access to the seniority list? First thing I would have done would have been to take a good long look at my own negotiating position. Was I coming to the table with absolutely nothing to offer? Did I stand to gain new bases, new aircraft, a career lifeline for those who otherwise would be collecting their P45s? Would my company council be making an arse of itself by gaining all these tangible benefits yet adopting a negotiation strategy of refusing to negotiate unless even more was offered? For all the personal loyalty you may have had to your reps, they lost you an awful lot with their poor understanding of the business reality and their even worse negotiating tactics, which were described to me by a member of the BA negotiating team as saying "Give me what I want or I'll shoot myself"! With that sort of approach is it any wonder your management repeatedly walk over you?
By the way, you omitted to include the usual retort that BRAL was a successful, profitable company before BA started to interfere (conveniently forgetting to mention that Easyjet et al didn't exist last time BRAL made any money).