SEVENMILEUP,
I would be a touch wary of the BALPA forum.
As to a hull reduction this year? Again I dispute that. The draw down of the 757 is to be a lengthy one over the next two to three years. A three hull reduction at Gatwick is being offset by the 10 A320 orders that were delivered in 2008 coupled with 9 new 320's for 2009, 2 318's in final fit at the moment and 2 ex GB 320's that are causing consternation with their singular fuelling coupling on the 'wrong' side. 6 319 aircraft have gone to Gatwick and no draw down in routes for LHR over the summer and a slight route regularity draw down over the winter with no routes dropped. G-YMMM is being replaced soon and then the delivery of the 6 fleet expansion 777's are due to start soon. Overcrewed? Depends on your viewpoint and how deep you dig into the flight ops planning.
As to LIFO, it is of no doubt that BALPA support LIFO. It is the easiest, most convenient and, unless you are below the magic red line, the least contentious form of redundancy. Sadly, with differing fleets and aircraft a few other factors come into play such as re-training. I, personally, would find it galling if a company made me redundant citing cost as a basis and then retrained, incurring training costs, a 'senior' person to do the job I was just laid off from. This is also against EU law where a person cannot be made redundant and then have his job filled within a short time period by another person. 757 draw done? LIFO, replace all of the junior Airbus boys with the 'senior' 757 boys? Ouch. Legal? Possibly not.
Remember, the world is not black and white and BALPA got badly burned over the OS debacle.
What the future holds no one is entirely sure. What you can be sure of is that BA will want to be in a position to ramp up quickly when needed and they can't do that without pilots.