Trouble is, Doggy, that with the sort of super-rigid SOPs that have turned a skilled job involving judgement and experience into an unvariable scripted and choreographed ballet there is no room for airmanship any more.
Think about it - when was the last time you heard that word? Not for some time, I'd guess. Years probably. That is scary. Very scary. What chance do the cadets have of gainng any when its been scripted out of the job?
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BALPA had better do a proper job over the nastiness that is coming, because if there is a strike, and I don't see how one can be avoided with the attitudes prevailing at present, it had better be won. My fear is that all the rhetoric and promises to strike will evaporate when push comes to shove, and a few brave, principled souls will find themselves deserted on the picket lines as the majority of their "colleagues" decide that discretion is the better part and craven out. The rancour and divisions that this would cause will be the end of any cohesion the pilots had left and will destroy for ever trust between the pilots (I've seen it before- it is a horrible thing to have in a company), and perhaps more seriously, trust in BALPA. This, I fear, is a scenario that some people are praying for, and working hard to achieve.
If a strike is broken in the full glare of the media's gleeful and extensive publicity it will so damage BALPA's reputation that it will not survive as a useful tool outside BA ever again, and perhaps not even there. I think a broken strike would be the end of BALPA as a credible force in the industry as a whole. The thought of our aviation industry without any protection at all from the rogues and thieves that run it these days is a dreadful prospect, and will quite simply signal the end of flying as a viable career choice. Look at the way dock workers were employed seventy years ago - hanging around the gates every morning in a mob waiting to catch the eye of the overseer who would hire individuals - the ones he liked (or whose bribes he liked...) for a day, a couple of days, or even - joy of joys - a whole week! The rest went home at 0830 unpaid and hungry. No sick pay. No pension. No holiday entitlement. No loss of licence, no nothing.
And all this coming from such a fanatically "politically correct" organisation. The hypocricy is simply staggering.
This isn't being melodramatic - this is where we are heading. Do not doubt it for a moment.