It's a great shame to see this thread bought down to the level of "we are better than you", "I paid £75000 for my training" and "we are harder to replace" etc. etc. As a long serving bmi (mainline) pilot and very much a member of a big team that gets the passengers from A to B I have always tried to treat others at work, be they loaders, a/c cleaners, dispatchers, other pilots and cabin crew etc., with courtesy and respect and have generally been treated in the same manner. I would urge those posters above who are indulging themselves in a worthless playground shouting match to desist, you are not helping your cause or your colleagues. How much anybody earns, what they paid to get trained is irrelevant and despite what may think nobody is as hard to replace as they think they are.
The fact is the pilots signed an agreement with the company which they have reneged on and most of us who voted YES did so reluctantly to force them to talk to us. It looks like that will now happen and hopefully the talks will bring a resolution that is satisfactory, if not BALPA have a mandate to take strike action which they will use.
The pilots have no dispute with anybody else in the company so please don't create one on this forum. Cool heads all round please.