Some food for thought - although it may only be applicable to a small portion of the BA pilot body. The act of withdrawing your services is all that you have available as a weapon against the beancounters. This can take three forms;
1. Individual Action. Typified by the 'I am an Army of One' philosophy. Ultimately futile but may be curiously satisfying to some and certainly a crowd-pleaser.
2. Union Action. As being discussed. Honorable, tried and true and predictable.
3. Empowerment.
I would suggest that the first two options should not be attempted without the third being firmly established.
Empowerment. You can call it whatever you like but it comes down to having real, viable, no 5hit options which you can take up if your other tactics fail. To be going on strike with a mortgage, kids at school, sailing addiction etc. and nothing else is foolhardy in the current world climate. The managers of the world have had decades of dealing with this dynamic and are ready to tackle it (with government support). Rather than manning the picket lines you should be flooding the in-trays of every major airline with your CVs (after all, you are gold in the global professional pilot stakes - no one can argue with that) - BUT - you have to have the intention of taking the job. That's the catch - you've got to be willing to walk. An example;
Qantas was poised to go medieval with its pilot body using the Workchoices legislation of the former government. Even without that coming to pass, a large portion of the pilot body started looking around in case the worst happened. Now, a Qantas job used to be a job for life, but, since people started to look around at what was available, some people, without any pressure, decided to walk. I know that a lot of Qantas people, newly stimulated, are weighing their options. Can I head back to the RAAF on a sweet deal? Go Emirates? Take promotion early with VirginBlue? A stint at Korean before retiring etc. Take a look at the Qantaslink regional thread for a taste of the mood.
This of course is not for everyone - after all it means turning your back on an icon - however this is not what the beancounters want. Thay want you to stay on, in parallel with the cheap option.
Look around, attend roadshows, send in CVs, post employment conditions online, regain your qualifications in other areas. If nothing else it may relieve a bit of bunker mentality and, who knows, you may meet your future second wife.
But, above all, EMPOWER yourself. Feels good.