I am a former BAA employee, though for the past 25 years, I worked out on the airfield, rather than in the Terminal buildings, so was subject to the same Security indignities as everyone else, thank you very much! (Pleased I no longer have to take my shoes off 10 times a day, just to get to and from my office.)
There were for many years 4 unions representing BAA workers - the T&G for Security etc, lately Amicus for the technical grades and the Fire Service, PCS for clerical and lower/middle management and Prospect for middle managers like me. The 3 latter unions had various names over the years, with the T&G being the more traditional 'militant' body. I belonged to the T&G when I was a Security guard and in the late '70s they were always trying to use our numbers to wield political power, fortunately failing (our local convenor was a self-confessed member of the then Militant Tendency).
However, with having 4 unions to deal with, the British Airports Authority (then after privatisation BAA) could always find a way to 'look after' the groups that could actually close an airport, principally the Airport Fire Service. Loss of technicians for a short while, whilst making difficulties behind the scenes wouldn't result in immediate disruption of services. Loss of those Security staff actually in the T&G, might result in longer queues, but with office worker 'volunteers' bolstering the non-union Security personnel a service could be maintained. Thus staff couldn't be persuaded to vote for strike action, becuse even the more intellectually challenged people could see that they'd be on to a loser.
Now, with the merging of the T&G and Amicus into Unite, Brendan Sewell has in my opinion finally achieved his ambition of being able to actually shut an airport by bringing the Fire Service out - the only body who are solid enough to be able to achieve this. At Glasgow recently, the Fire Service was kept going during a strike by using senior officers from the other airports; this time there won't be enough to go round.
Now, is this a just cause? On the face of it, why should an existing worker be concerned about the terms and conditions of any prospective new employee? Well, actually, there is already a problem between T's & C's for staff who joined the Company after 1997, when they changed for the worse. Attempts to harmonise the pre- and post '97 T's & C's were still stalled when I left.
I think that the strike isn't about protecting members who don't even exist yet, but more about the 'thin end of the wedge' and people generally being very dissatisfied with the present senior management since a major shake-up which actually started well before Ferrovial were even on the horizon. The Spanish consortium have really just inherited this situation but it is also fair to say that they expect a better financial performance than BAAplc were achieving, which was lack-lustre to say the least. Otherwise, why would the BAAplc shareholders be so pleased to get rid of their holdings?
The above is just a personal view from a former employee, not much of an axe to grind really, so long as my pension doesn't go down the tubes!
Cheers,
TheOddOne