Vol 7: Over the last 18 months, the pilots have attempted to resolve the situation without resorting to industrial action.
They have put up with continual stalling and attmepts at fobbing off while they patiently tried to work something out, all the time that 'working into discretion' and selling days off were a significant factor in keeping company/group running at all, for the benefit of all of employees.
Doesn't sound particularly selfish to me.
The threat to strike in 2004 was taken seriously by management, a settlement was reached which was acceptable to all involved, thus there was no need to strike. This is how industrial relations (in their most degraded stage,sadly) work. No crying wolf - the pilots were deadly serious then, as now.
Pilots, perhaps more so than any other group of employees, are acutely aware of the commercial impact of critical decisions which they make daily. The same awareness extends to industrial matters - no sane individual, pilot or not, believes they can gain anything if a company is run 'into the ground', as you put it.
You seem to think this is about spite or some similar emotional response on behalf of the pilots - quite the opposite. Patience, goodwill, and reserves of dignity have been exhausted, the only practical, rational step left open to the pilots, after already attmepting all those avenues you mention, is the threat and, should it become necessary, delivery of industrial action.