I'm going to make myself really unpopular here and agree with some of the points made by oneworld, sort of.
EI have made a point of telling the pilot reps that the t&c in belfast will never be used to set the T&C at the dublin base. and they've said that belfast pilots who transfer down to dub will be 'upgraded' to dub rates. basically the idea is that dub and bds will run as totally separate bases.
it's not really the same idea as what ryanair are doing, because as far as i can see the main thing EI are focusing on is work practices not salaries. salary scales start higher, are shorter, and the management has yet to disclose the top level. the idea is that you can progress faster, but only if you work harder. and the general consensus is that the top level will be lower than the top level at dub, which is obviously going to be unpopular. but the basic principle is to move towards more of a meritocracy. so sounds like it'd be a good place to be for a young pilot starting out, but not such a good place to spend your later years. changes will come at dub too, but in reference to pci and not in ref to bds.
aer lingus have, however, made a complete mess of implementing the thing and they're certainly not world leaders at either
pr or ir. they should have made it very clear from the outset that any new bases would have separate terms. they should have forged easier transfer routes for pilots who wanted to switch from dub to bds. and they could have adopted a manner less akin to a bull in a china shop.
all mistakes made, and you'd like to think they'd be learned from but ei history suggests they probably won't.
as for the pilots, they're coming off even worse than the management. for the first few days, the logic behind their grievance was totally muddy. apparenlty their letter to DM didn't even outline specifically why they were striking, it just said that they were striking. and from there it got worse and worse. the offer to withdraw from strike if EI did those three conditions looked petulant in the extreme, because they were three completely unworkable conditiosn. for it to be feasible you gotta leave the company some wiggle room, and that left room for none.
so that's my, er, rather long thoughts...