My understanding is that even if the proposals are agreed NATS will almost certainly end up paying far more than it has been for our pensions and probably a lot more than it would like to. Have we reached the limit of what they are willing to go to ? We'll probably never know. Do we like the deal ? Of course not. Is it the best deal we could get ? Probably.
I'm not sure why there's a lack of confidence in the union. As I've said before from time to time they are going to have to bring you bad news. If you are going to vote them out when that happens you are destined to go through a lot of union reps.
Personally I think they've done a pretty good job. I was impressed at the amount of effort that the union has put in and it was quite clear under pretty detailed questioning that they'd considered far more options and thought out a lot more angles than anybody in the room had.
Should our union be worrying about the good of the company ? Actually I think they should. Generally employees are likely to be far better off in a company that is healthy than one that isn't. If the trade union movement has learnt anything since 1979 it must be that bringing down the company you work for generally damages the employees as much as the company.
Are the figures correct ? I don't know for sure but there are enough PCS members in finance to ensure that the truth would out if they weren't.