Christ, this sounds familiar. Play the tape back seven and a half years and I'm hearing a familiar story. Except this time, mercifully, the numbers are much less. And BALPA were no use then either.
As for coming back, Stan - you are dead right. There is a lot more to life than VS. The company always believed it's own propoganda and thought that Virgin was such a fun place to work which is why people always work for less than the going rate and no-one will ever want to leave. Except that when they finally escape, they realise that there is far more to life than the VS BS. The company were very suprised in 2002 that when they realised they had made a mistake in making so many redundant and invited people to rejoin, that many didn't want to return.
Leaving VS was my best ever career move.
Good luck to the 21.