If the BAA staff (unite members) go on strike when they propose to,around the 2-6th of January closing down all the major airports, how does the company intend to absorb that loss coupled with the loss they will incur when the cabin crew go on strike just days later.
Just another example of not knowing what you are talking about. We pay BAA lots of money (even more as of next year as landing fees are due to go up 17%) to use the UK airports, however money does pass both ways. Any losses made by airlines affected by a BAA strike are directly claimable back from BAA as breach of contract. This happens nearly everyday.
For example, one of ours is late on stand because the stand its allocated is occupied by another carrier. As a result leaves say 15 mins late - purely due to this other carrier not leaving the stand allocated to VS by the BAA. BAA will charge us for not being off stand on time, we in turn will charge BAA for not clearing our allocated stand in time, BAA would then pass this on the the original delaying carrier.
Thats how it works all the time, thats why there are code delays for everything. If LSG hold up boarding due to catering and it goes late, they get charged, if crew are late through security, the bus gets charged, or BAA security gets charged. You may remeber this happened earlier this year with the LGW refuelers, their company backed down as it would have had to have stumped up the airlines losses.
However this is why the BAA will come up with a deal for its members, I'm not sure on how many airlines serve the BAA airports, however they would all be able to claim their losses back from BAA, a figure that would run to 100's of million. That is why Virgin is not panicked by this, a BAA strike cannot go ahead as not only would BAA lose income, but they would have to pay out a fortune.
VS on the other hand, would lose money yes, but it wouldn't be paying anything out (other than the refunds and small amounts of food vouchers etc) but nowhere near the amounts BAA would pay. However this would be short lived because as a result, we'd bill the BAA, and we get the money back.
I and many of my colleagues also feel that you have nothing to achieve by doing this. The company offered you more money, you've thrown it back at them. The time for an 11th hour deal has already passed, if it were to have come at all (which I never believed it would) it would have been last week, to stop you all voting for strike and to stop the press coverage.
I therefore think that the company will hold its word and not give you another deal. You will therefore not only lose your deal, but lose your pay for the days you are on strike. So you gain NOTHING, achieve chaos, bad press, and damage the company maliciously. This in turn causes problems for everybody, passengers and staff alike. You all have nothing to gain, and have already lost out - why continue?