Just listen to yourselves.
As I mentioned a few months ago, it's the blind leading the blind!
So, Nearly Man, a mate of a mate told you that Balpa were rude and disinterested on the phone. FFS... get a life and try calling them yourself for an accurate opinion. I mean, the sum of your experience of working for UK airlines is...? What was that? How many airlines have you worked for? Oh OK, and that airline had Balpa representation did it? No? Oh, OK. I refer you back to the first paragraph.
The ONLY hope you lot at J2 have for proper representation is a SINGLE union with overwhelming membership and a dedicated company council. Let's see... IPA... Sorry, I fell over laughing at that one. Once again, let's see their track record. Hmm, still waiting...
Joking aside, theres nothing more that most of pilots would like to see is you lot properly represented and negotiating with your management from a position of strength. However, until you get your collective acts together, nothing is going to change and judging by the posts on this thread, I wouldn't advise holding your breath either.
As one other poster pointed out earlier, JOIN BALPA! Until then, we will just keep seeing a repeat of this discussion as your terms and conditions are repeatedly eroded and you will remain the laughing stock of the UK pilot community as you bicker amongst yourselves about which way to move forward. Take a bit of advice from those of us who have worked for and are working for airlines with BALPA recognition.