I believe I bothered to post (when I've never bothered to post before although I've been a long time lurker mostly for the humour!) because I have been (about 10 years ago) in a position similar to the one that BACC find themselves in now.
My colleagues and I (I'm talking about a sector of the financial services industry - not the airline industry) were faced with outsouring and a threat (as we saw it) to our future terms and conditions. I can't tell you how much I hated the employer at that time (I still feel bitterness now if I'm honest) and we were fully engaged with our union (a company endorsed section of the TUC) in trying to ensure that the proposed changes were withdrawn.
Suffice to say that our small victory was a pyrrhic one - we didn't get to strike as the management agreed so some (not all) demands. I ended up redundant just under 3 years later as did many of my colleagues (it wasn't lost on us exactly WHO was made redundant)
I suppose I see reflections of that time in the tone and bitterness of many of the posts here. I don't know if I would do anything differently if I had the time again (perhaps I would have sought alternative emploment earlier?) but I do know that after my own experience I would simply ask anyone is the service sector (which can be so easily outsourced) to think long and hard about what life is like post strike. You may feel bad now but what about after a strike? What if, a year from now EU legislation makes what BA want to do perfectly legal and acceptable - what will your strike achieve?
This is an honest question for anyone here - if you do strike, do you expect BA to capitulate? If so, what happens then? I believe they could simply adapt their proposals and get what they want at a later date (rather like the re-appearance of the EU 'treaty' which looks and smells like the old one but apparently isn't...
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I do NOT have any affiliations with BA or BAA or any airline (apart from owning a silver BAEC card). But I am interested in labour relations and transport in general...