So why so rude to crew? No trick question, honest answer appreciated.
Ok, I'll have a stab at it.
The reason, I think, why you seeing a less favourable reaction to the crew dispute than for nurses/teachers/etc has to do with the scale of the offer and how it has reached this stage.
Take point one. You tell someone that Virgin crew are striking, they ask 'what were they offered', and when they hear 4.8% they may be a little taken aback by that headline number. Probably twice or more what they managed this year. Forget that they don't know the detail; but from a layman's point of view, it's rather better than inflation. When the Nurses threatened action back in November, it was because their offer was 2.5% in two stages - a deal worth less than 2% a year. The teachers got their feathers ruffled for a similar 2% deal in April. So you have to admit, people see 4.8% for a perceived "glamourous" job and wonder why you're complaining.
Then there's point two. And this is a reason why those more closely involved may feel a little acrimonious. Unite (and Boyd in particular) have really screwed this up - they have given the company the impression they had a deal at least twice, only for the membership to reject it. If they had properly gauged their own membership, it wouldn't have gone to a strike ballot.
Even now, staring the industrial dispute down the barrel of a gun, the union still haven't clearly identified what the membership want. It is the most ludicrous situation possible - thousands of employees prepared to bring the company to its knees, but unsure of what they are actually striking for. Perhaps you can see, the view from other employees positions is that jeopardising their future pay and even their job security is unreasonable unless you can be clear about what deal you actually want.