There is still the point that an effective contract was enetered into with existing employees regarding a pension scheme, and there's no guarantee that BAA will honour that contract. While a company can say 'We entered a contract, but now we can say Yah! Boo! Sucks! we didn't intend to honour it anyway so we're changing it', they can't be trusted in anything else, either. So if the unions wish to say 'Screw you! We don't care what happens because the way you've behaved, you are so untrustworthy we could all be out of a job tomorrow, so let's take you down with us', it's somewhat understandable.
I'd rather fly to Paris than have to drag a back on the train, which is what I suspect I'll have to do.....yes, it does affect me directly.