BA's pay deal
Just to clarify that BA c.crew didn't get a 18% pay rise in the last strike threatened deal.
That figure relates to the % of the basic pay that was pensionable in the newer pension package. ie the amount of the basic pay that was pensionable went up by 18.75%.
The strike was threatened as the crew felt that there were several issues that were not being talked about/negotiated by the company & the list of "failure to agree" motions was growing alarmingly.
There was a historically large % of union members returning their voting papers, & over 96% voted for action.
Even with that level of solidarity, it was bloomin' scary/horrible stuff to go through, & the rumour mill about what BA would do to strikers was rife (& inaccurate). There was eventually quite a few crew who felt the final deal was still not good enough, the pension part of the deal in particular was not popular.
BA being unwilling to put money into the pension package, yet still posting fair profit figures & spending large sums of money elsewhere (eg the fuel surcharge affair. Thanks a lot, VS!!) & Branson refusing to pay VS crew any more yet put £200 mill into N.Rock is fairly similar to my eyes, unless I'm missing some detail.
Best of luck,
Matt.