CFC,
If I'm speaking out of turn when I try and suggest why there may be a modicum of disbelief, please excuse me but, I think the disconnect lies in the fact that some regular posters on here have asked some very straight questions which no-one from the pro-BASSA side of the debate has either been able, or seen fit, to answer. I know from reading CF that this forum is derided as being irretrievably biased and full of bitter Nigels or wannabes who'll get no closer to an aeroplane than MS Flight Sim but that very stance means that you'll never get the understanding or support of people who, by their very questions, strive to understand more fully your position and stance.
But, and this is only my point of view, it's incredibly frustrating when people won't actually engage in the meat of the debate and answer some simply put questions. Your case is not assisted greatly by those who support you coming on here, playing a personal attack card, being banned or merely putting BASSA 100%
as a posting.
I note from Crew Forum a debate which really exemplifies the problem if you don't feel the way BASSA want you to feel. For those without access it debates the recent secondment/promotion campaign for CSD's that BA have run. Some have dared to suggest that those who apply for it may not be the undermining of all that BASSA hold dear and have mooted other issues which have contributed to a degree of undermining. Those people have been excoriated for their point of view. Moreover when the debate turns to whether or not BASSA won their day in court (we all have our opinion on this), those who dare to suggest they may not have are lambasted with "how do you know?", "were you there?" and then these self-same attackers in the very next sentence proceed to say they know they won because BASSA told them, even proclaiming they know that BA's lawyers admitted defeat on the contractual point because, yes that's right, BASSA told them.
On neither side is there any proof of the above. One most certainly will prove to be correct in time but neither person can claim absolute knowledge and this undermines any attempt at debate all the damned time. It's so depressing that so many armchair CEO's seem to think they know better than WW how to run the company yet can come up with nothing more constructive in debate about that very issue than "Wake up and smell the coffee". That's not debate - it's sniping and it belittles the very core of the argument.
Your passions are undeniable. Your articulation of the root and validity of those passions falls somewhat shorter.
All the assertions made, thus far, by BASSA have, as far as I'm aware not been backed up by one provable piece of evidence. Claiming you offered the savings without an audited proof of such means nothing. I can claim I saved BA £300,000 on my last flight. I can't prove it but if I say it often enough does it become true? Not really.
Same with the fines etc - it's now an article of faith through repetition that had BA not played their, admittedly, underhand fixing games, that we'd not be in any financial trouble whatsoever and none of this structural change would be necessary. The fact (verifiable through the company accounts, which, despite many of the assertions, BA don't, and can't, run 2 sets of just to screw the CC over) is that they were accounted for in a different year to this one in which (the news will tell you) we are making record losses which are unsustainable. So BA aren't coming to you to pay the fines. They're accounted for. Too many beliefs are held as facts due to the catechistic manner of BASSA's preaching.
I respect each and every crew member's right to hold their opinion but when you read of so many taking pride in the fact they don't read anything BA sends them, then I weep for the fact that on that statement alone, one can never form a balanced opinion, formed by one's own mature mind. It isn't fact because BASSA say it is, nor, indeed, because BA say it is. But, the least you owe yourselves is to read all the available information and then form an opinion and not to only absorb the information that supports your pre-defined viewpoint.
Apologies for a ramble, one of the failings of my brain.
MrB