I for one don't give a toss about whether we have public sympathy or not in the event of any industrial action. The public don't pay my wages, not anymore anyway....no doubt somebody will now come up with a smart comment about how the public pays the airlines, and the airlines pay us....makes no difference. NATS are PPP, nothing to do with taxpayers money anymore.
No doubt Barron would mount an all out press offensive disclosing details about the amount of time off we get, how much we get paid etc. He will also, no doubt, neglect to mention his whopping pay rise last year, the DB9, the total and utter spunkage (yes, I just made that word up) of money on needless initiatives, award ceremonies and Starbucks HQ. He'll blame the whole thing on (in no particular order) financial downturn, airlines going bust, Osama Bin Laden, greedy Porsche-driving ATCOs etc etc etc.
Am I right in thinking that it would be up to the Unions to counter any such management propaganda?