The pilots (and others) at BA should have gotten the very strong hint about company funded pensions when the Mirror Group (ala Robert Maxwell) had their, shall we say...slight problem, and many were left high and dry.
Some BA pilots are actually more initimately acquianted with the above than you may think. As far as heads in the sand goes, as all of us are well aware of the history of UK company bosses ripping off pension schemes either "legally" or otherwise, I think most of us are pretty clued up.