Back in the late 70's & 80's the British Guild of Flight Operations Officers worked in vain for the adoption of the ICAO 'recommendation' for the licencing of Flight Operations Officers. It is important to note the word 'recommendation' here, had it been a 'standard' the UK would have been obliged to introduce an accreditation. Alas, it is not.
I do not recall BALPA being an open objector to this, but I can say there was little support from the CAA. Also, I suspect the airline pilot/management fraternity confused the desire by the BGFOO to promote a licence/ acceditation with the US FAA disptach system, which is not the same thing.
Another issue, as I outlined in another posting, the US 'flight release' would not sit well with our aircrew as it is not part and parcel of commercial operations as it is in the FAA system. Our pilots have always been trainined to accept complete responsibility for the safe operation of the aircraft and this is part of the ANO/ANR, their licences are based on this. No problems with that fact, but we all know our aircrew rely on a multiude of ground staff to support their flight, I would have thought that they would have welcomed a qualification for their colleages who prepare the pre-flight information they rely on and offer support in flight. We have licenced engineers of course, who require training etc etc, to ensure an aircraft is airworthy. It should of course extend to Ops.
Why didn't it happen, simply, I believe that the industry was working without any form of flight operations officer acceditation and those who could have supported were not experienced enought to be able to comprehend the benifts or were too afraid of another group of individuals to manage and who would have reasonably demanded higher salaries.
For my own part, it would be a great thing to have a common acceditation whilst recruiting Ops staff, and I would encourage any ops bod to ensure you obtain as much training and certification as you can. The FAA licence and the UK City and Guild Ops Dispatch course are very good places to start.
On another point, aircrew are our colleages, there are good and bad as with all walks of life and I would not for a minute foster any division between us. Aircrew are/we are operational personnel and as such are part of the chain of safety. It is my experience that most aircrew understand and appreciate our role in the business. The more professional ops are the more support for a formal accrediation we are likely to get.
It would be good to hear from the others involved in the BGFOO at the time as I am sure they would put another spin on the above.