This seems to go on and one. Some relevant facts are:
1) This is about as good a deal as is ever going to be offered and is very similar in structure to the best of those being offered by other UK companies in the same situation.
2) Disregarding APS, NAPS, allied with BAs salary advantages, will still be the best deal available in British aviation.
3) Pension rights gained to date are unchanged. It is only the future accrual rate which changes, along with the move of the retirement age to 60 ( something which many pilots , other than those wanting a 5 year "afterlife" stint with SQ etc ,have been wanting for years).
4) Neither the City nor the Government would lift a finger to save BA if it went under. Financially short haul has never been better than marginal and the profitable long haul has been starved of investment in additional aircraft for the past 5 years.
5) A restructured BA would probably look much like a new BOAC and shorthaul would either be abandoned or franchised. Other operators (UK and EU) would quickly take on the better routes at lower costs. There would be no need for them to buy short haul from BA,- they would just let it collapse and then move in.
6) The opportunities for displaced BA pilots after after a corporately terminal strike would not look rosy. They would of course lose their seniority and would be at the back of the queue for jobs with whoever took over the routes. Many would have to start again as turboprop F/Os with regionals or as contractors for overseas operators. Careers would be over.
7) A strike in anger may give a temporary surge of adrenalin, but it would risk far more than any likely gain. If BA went under, far more would be lost in future pension rights and payments for all existing and retired staff than would be gained by accepting the current offer, give or take the odd tweak to the detail.
The reality is that this is a time for cool heads and some serious thinking about the shape of the world , the need for management, unions and staff to take a new look at BA as if it were starting in business afresh and design a new future. Strikes have never saved a business or industry,- just hastened its demise. There is no perfect company and overall BA is a pretty good one. For its own people to destroy it would be absolute folly which they would regret for years to come.