Can BA offer more than £500 million? Probably. Management would be stupid to put their best offer on the table first. However, if someone thinks that BA has £2 billion just laying around AND the additional cash required going forward to continue to pay the ever increasing pension costs, then they are fooling themselves.
Which is precisely why BALPA have employed some of the best analysts available to come up with the best compromise position which BA can afford.
The short termist CEO and his ilk will rebuff that compromise at their peril. If we strike we may well sink BA.
I am so sick of witnessing 'the unacceptable face of capitalism', to quote a well known politician, I will be prepared to see that happen despite the fact I may well be worse off initially.
I am not a raging communist by nature but, by God, corporate management in the UK could quite easily make me one.