I'm ashamed to say that I went through the last spat that bassa had with BA pretty much in ignorance of the issues and of the full implications and legalities of IA, employment law etc. I allowed myself to be swept along on the tidal wave of emotions displayed at the time, mainly on CF and the bassa forum.
Once that little episode was over and done with, I promised myself never to put myself into such a vulnerable, uninformed and therefore weak position. So this time round, I have listened as much as possible to both parties, researched points I was uncertain of, listened to what debate there has been and taken timeout to seriously consider my position. I use the word debate here in it's fullest sense, so have pretty much avoided CF and bassa this time round as those forums seem usually to consist of one person posting a statement and 101 others saying "yes". (That assumes that the original statement towed the bassa line. If it didn't it was just ignored or shouted down, but very rarely "discussed"). All very reassuring, but not at all helpful or constructive. An untruth repeated a thousand times does not become a truth. It does however take-on a degree of weight, especially to those either unable or unwilling to dig deeper, as I was previously. I did notice though that the talk of IA and of "bringing the airline down" started fairly early on, or dare I say, prematurely.
I have now resigned from bassa (as I stated in an earlier post). Upto this time however, I have read the flyers and emails sent by them. I think it a great shame that they have used so many words to say so little of any use. There is no attempt to encourage the membership to think, only to follow. The lack of any clear information (and I fully understand the "blackout" while negotiations continue), guidance or reference to places where information might be found is a big failing on bassa's part. I am unsure as to wether that "failing" is deliberate or not. Ultimately, I found some of the flyers to be particularly insulting, childish and a clear attempt at coercion.
Welcome to those of you coming now from CF/bassa forums to Pprune. Can I ask that you do take time to read through this entire thread. It will firstly save us from too much tedious repetition and may even enlighten or inspire you a little.
I feel bad that by leaving bassa, I forego any possibility of my actually managing to change anything about it, about the way it thinks and acts. However, I seriously doubt that that was ever a possibility in the first place. Previous posters have already made it clear though that my "type" were not welcome anyway. I am now a free-spirit. It feels great.