Santas Little Helper - I am one of those who left BALPA in the past but rejoined when a big fight was coming at easyJet - so I have held to both sides of the argument. What finally persuaded me to back BALPA was that I saw the power of force of numbers. There are those, and you may be one of them, who have such a visceral hatred of BALPA that any amount of rational discussion is wasted. For the more discerning, it seems self-evident that if you have all pilots acting as one then you will have a voice in the face of unreasonable management.
Have a look at those companies who have big BALPA voices - Monarch, BA, Virgin and until recently easyJet. Every one of them has done well from it. Look at the other end of the scale - Jet 2 or Ryanair. They are continually stuffed by their bosses. The working conditions at the BALPA-represented companies are manifestly better than those without union representation. Our percentage membership has gone down recently and consequently our excellent CC had their bluff called and had to give in over the last pay deal.
Let me give you a great example of how BALPA can work and your £700 can pale into insignificance. Last year we were desparately short of Training Captains and about 40 new ones were promoted. When the contracts came through the 12.5% pay rise was a 'temporary' promotion for a year. BALPA went in and argued the toss, won the argument and all trainers are now on permanent contracts. That has proven to be worth about £9k a year for each captain involved - makes your £700 seem quite small.
For all the freeloaders who want to let everyone else fight for the good deals, pay nothing and then say thanks a lot - just do not come back and whine when it all goes wrong later. You have lost the right to speak or complain. Everything that we have now at easyJet has been won by BALPA - let us not be so foolish as to throw it away for a few quid a month extra in our banks.