As an employee of BA I have a vested interest in this debate. I still find it amazing that BASSA are pedalling the message that WW is making it all up, stand by your guns lads/ladettes "we'll all be fine! Well, on planet BASSA that maybe true but in reality we are in the pooh.
I went to Mumbai at the weekend and we were pretty much full, great I thought - we must be making some money here. Not so, a quick glance at the PIL showed 42 Upgrades to Club (and I am informed we're more or less giving away Econ tickets at the moment). BASSA would say that they were all paying Club fares (why let the truth get in the way of good yarn).
Our revenue has collapsed, WW has gone public (why on earth would he do that? Do we really want the World to know just how bad things are at BA? No, of course not).
I sincerely hope that BASSA negotiate something, any imposed new contract is going to be worse than what might be achieved by negotiation, if BASSA actually want to negotiate, that is. The comparison between BASSA and Bob Crowe's RMT is remarkable.
BA is a 21st Century airline, in a 21st Century recession. BASSA is a 1970s union. For all our sakes I truely hope BASSA can evolve in the next 12 days to a union that tries to secure a future for its members rather than hammering another nail in the coffin for the rest of the employees.