Good post Shaka.
I was at BACX too, BRAL before that, Manx before that, Loganair before that from the mid 80s onward - so I know exactly what happened. I was attached to the BACX CC at the time as well, so I'm well informed, which is possibly more than many on both sides here.
I'm not going to comment though - what's the point? People have a right to be bitter - but it won't solve anything. Other people can remain intransigent in ignorant selfdenial - that won't prove anything either; the argument is not worth a bucket of warm spit!
As to the thread question, without any doubt if Open Skies flies, then ultimately the Ts and Cs of every European Airline pilot will suffer. So I hope it doesn't. Succeed.
However:
1. Will I go on strike to support BACC - No. Can't afford to, and it would be illegal.
2. Will I stand on a picket line, join a march, honk as I go past - No. I don't believe in behaving like a union dork from the 70s when I also believe it is pointless and will achieve nothing. Just more posturing.
2. Will I offer my moral support - of course, it costs nothing to scroll a post on here in the full and certain knowledge that it's free and that it will affect precisely nothing.
3. Do I think BACC will win - No.
Option a) The courts will probably say a strike is legal, but if they don't - BACC lose bigtime.
Option b) If they say it's legal, the threat remains and will cause BA management to negotiate a compromise, which will be a foot in the door, and which will precipitate the aforementioned fall in Ts and Cs. At the end of the day, being human, BACC will, just as they did with the pensions row, look after present members at the expense of future ones. That's the way it is folks. Anyone who thinks differently should re-read the posts about the pension row, remember all those threats to bring the company down if anything was changed, all the threats about really meaning it, the line in the sand, etc etc. Just meaningless trite propaganda.
We live in a world of change; change is inevitable, hence change will come. In industrial terms, change never involves the employee benefiting more than the employer (Descartes, Rousseau). Further, change always involves new and more efficient ways of functioning (Thos Paine).
Check your history books, stop squabbling - be glad you're not just starting out in the business. Forget this utterly pointless dispute, type "Peak Oil" into Google and consider how any of our futures look if we have more than five years or so still to pension. (Ah, yes, pension, well done BACC
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