Agreed. I've been paying BALPA membership since Jan 1971. I won't even pretend to calculate what 1% of my pay is from £160 per month to over £10,000 per month in my time there, and since in another company! But I will say it was worth it. I have found BALPA to be dispassionate and fair. I have resorted to advice from them, and been guided in a redundancy situation. Rather than looking on it as a 'fee', it should be seen as an 'investment' which returns enhanced pay and conditions. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the benefits I ended up being remunerated with if I had been negotiating for myself over the years. Sadly, we all know colleagues who are only too happy to come along for the free ride and accept union-negotiated benefits without question whilst not contributing to the pool that finances those enhancements! BALPA is after the fairest settlement for the most people. If you feel you were one of the ones 'shafted' by BALPA, you have to try and step back and see the big picture and how the law lies. All these settlements in disputes have a company behind them as the driving force. BALPA is always having to fight a rear guard action and trying to achieve an equitable settlement. Sadly, those from 'walking dead' companies feel that BALPA screwed them when it looked at the circumstances and tried to do the best it could under adverse circumstances. The villain of the piece is not BALPA!