BALPA withdraw from Open Skies Court Case

[Skylion]

Devillish's posts are spot on.
This was always a most curious dispute and appears to have been manufactured to raise emotions.
There is no proposal by BA to back BA mainline into BA Openskies.
Unlike the oft quoted Jetstar, Openskies does not plan to operate into or out of BA mainline home territory,- the UK.
All there was was an unsubstantiated fear that BA might be tempted to allow Openskies to take over mainline routes. There was no evidence of such a plan or intention.
There was therefore nothing other than an underlying mistrust of BA's management hyped by BALPA to have a strike about. If BA had stated that they intended to back BA Mainline into Openskies there would have been a real issue for industrial action,- but they didn't and in fact firmly denied it.Whether you trust them not to change their mind in the future is not relevant. Only when an objectionable proposal is on the table is there a reasonable basis for industrial action. If strikes were the norm whenever a staff group had fears about what might or might not happen in the future there would never be a moments industrial peace.
BA took the action it did in confronting BALPA to protect its business, its customers, its shareholders and the future of other staff groups. They had no reasonable option and would have been negligent if they had not done so.
The whole affair is most unfortunate, especially as it widened to include a personal attack on Walsh, and it should never have happened. The management of the union have not covered themselves in glory.