The main problem with this is that not all of the pilots at BACON are affected. The Guys and gals who came into the shambles from Brymon rather than BRAL have a separate, money purchase based, scheme. Although this is not a huge issue in the crewroom on a day to day basis I have heard the odd "well it's alright for those BRAL people with the big pensions" (not that accurate an appraisal but still an underlying feeling with some). Would all of those, including new starters, really be prepared to risk their jobs to fight for rights they will never be able to have. Probably not.
I am not saying what the company are trying to do is right. It is clearly far from that but it is unlikely that BACON Balpa could get enough support for meaningful industrial action over this. For those of us on the Final Salary scheme our best hope is to try and do a deal with mainline Balpa that will tie us into the overall discussion on BA's pension problems.
What is clear that there is no easy solution. BA can't just fill the hole. What message would that send to those fighting for their rights in mainline they have an even stronger legal and moral position than we do. That just isn't going to happen. BA can't simply magic closed the hole in their own fund and they aren't about to do it for ours, so some kind of deal is going to have to be done. We will get a better deal if we can establish that, due to BA's contractual commitment to the pension at purchase, the BRAL scheme should be subject to the same negotiation and solution that is adopted for the main BA pension as a whole. Still won't be great but will be better than negotiating within BACON.
Finally, WW is looking for an excuse to rid himself of BA Connect. He likes the product not the company. It would be easy for the beancounters at Waterside to make him a case to simply close it any time he wants to impress the share holders or scare the unions. If they declare it bankrupt (which they could) the chances are we could lose nearly all of that money. Remember it's on the IOM not in the UK. Tread carefully when talking about industrial action.