This is a fascinating thread. As a bystander and long-time lurker now forced to register I do wish to offer an 'outsider' point of view.
Imagine you were running a huge multi billion dollar business that was very profitable. One day after years of 'cordial' relations and many discussions a union comes along ands asks for one big thing (let's call it all pilots on one seniority list) or else they'll ballot their members to strike.
It sounds a lot like holding you to ransom but nevertheless you seek to reassure. You state that there is no threat.
Despite all of this the position remains 'give us this or we'll strike'.
That is a pure, unmitigated threat. As a negotiator you have no place to go to meet halfway. Whichever way you cut it one side wins and one side loses.
As the Big Corp you have the duty to protect your assets and shareholders as well as to safeguard the jobs of the other employees.
BA acted in the only way it should have done when faced with such a demand. Had it capitulated then industry observers like myself and my colleagues would have shook our heads as we watched yet another player die on the road to Union 'partnership'.
BALPA trumped this up from day one - it was madness from the beginning and I suspect that they knew that (I cannot wait to read the court docs and disclosure information). BALPA displayed bad faith throughout and I am sure that this will come out in the wash.
Pilots - your union has played fast and loose with your money. They have destroyed any credibilty they had as a moderate union and have possibly started the unravelling of benchmark Ts and Cs. In the longer term this may be a good thing - I know of only a handful of industries which still sustain seniority based systems.
And what does seniority get you? Well, it gives a mechanism to ensure that a wholly inequitable system of incremental pay that ensures that the very top earners can pull £145k whilst the bottom boys and girls barely breach £30k. On top of that there exists a whole host of other potentially discriminatory rules relating to bidding rights.
Now I am not suggesting that experience should go unrewarded but that spread seems very hard to justify.
Out of this whole mad escapade you can take comfort from the following - by averting a strike BA allowed the employee bonus to be paid.
But look ahead - disaster looms for the sector as a whole and only the strong and flexible will survive. Your union does not pay your wages - most pilots I know would find it very tough to be poor and principled over paid and pragmatic. Perhaps it is time to start asking real questions about what it is that your Union is protecting? A system or your pay?
Want to make the job more 'professional'? Start pushing from the bottom not pulling from the top - it'll be an easier win to up new entrant salaries against the costs of training rather than explain away a gross inequity that has existed for three decades.