I'm sorry I feel the need to post this because I and many of my colleagues do believe that you deserve better terms and conditions than you have at the moment. However, reading the last salvo of posts, many of you should really educate yourselves a little bit better rather than spout off with opinions about the company which show you up to be little more than loudmouths with no comprehension of how business operates.
You would do well to remember the old adage of "better to keep your mouth shut and have everyone think you are a fool rather than open it and prove beyond a doubt that you really are one". To read some of the assumptions in the above posts about how Virgin lease or own their aircraft and how money is moved between companies in the same group is enough to fuel a 13 week comedy series on TV.
If this is the level of support and intelligent thought [sic] that the strike has then you have lost before you begin. No wonder you have such a dismal prospect ahead of you if, collectively, you can't put together a coherent argument as to why you are actually striking after the company twice had an agreement with your union reps for a deal. Now there is nothing on the board and all we read is squeals of hope that something, anything, will be put on the table by management.
The resignation of your ex head rep, whilst sad, is a little bit late. It should have happened after the first rejected vote in the agreement your reps had with the company. Still, better late than never. It's just sad that the rest of the team that got your aspirations so wrong don't see the need.
The management are confident that they re going to break this strike. No amount of gesturing by Scooby and other union die-hards is going to alter that fact. You have all been let down by incompetent reps and union leaders who have failed miserably to communicate with you all. Now you are left in limbo with a management, incompetent or not, who will revel in the misery your union has caused you. You were warned about agreeing to industrial action without the solid and overwhelming support of your membership.
You now need to let your union know what you think of their actions. The only way out of the current situation I can think of is if a few, sensible, level headed, individuals are prepared to stand up and be counted and call for a mass resignation from the union and to form a company representative council of cabin crew and approach the management with an offer of continued negotiations.
Assuming that they can muster at least 51% of the cabin crew workforce to leave the union and join a representative council then you may have some hope of salvaging something from this fiasco. Your position in terms of industrial relations has been set back at least 5 to 10 years and you need to organise yourselves a bit better than the pathetic "unite" union have!
Even if you could get around 60% to agree to have an elected company representative council and say 3,000 of you agreed to subscribe £5 a month, then you would get an income of £15,000 which would more than cover the cost of purchasing independent legal representation cover and for the hire of a decent negotiating consultant and some training for your elected reps. The only problem I see is that you don't have enough people with the guts and intelligence to step forward and take on this task.
Once again, you have our support for your demands for better terms and condition. You just don't have our support for the stupidity of the actions of your membership in deciding to engage in industrial confrontation without overwhelming support from your membership.
Good luck. You're going to need it.