Caudillo - although I do not agree with a single word you say, your post is one of the best I have read in ages. It really made me roar with laughter - excellent stuff.
At the risk of repeating myself, I am 100% for BALPA and will back any call to arms 100%. I am, however, able to see beyond the end of my nose and a strike is to be avoided if at all possible. That is not weakness - it is the use of common sense. Out Flt Ops Director is a completely unreasonable individual who would shoot his own grandmother to save money on her food bill. I am under no illusion as to what we are dealing with. If we are to strike, and I accept that may be where we are heading, then we have to gain something. It would be so much easier to gain that something by other means.
The tragedy here is that easyJet had a clear choice of directions with regard to industrial relations - the Southwest Airlines model or the Ryanair model. Alas, for reasons that escape me, the have embraced the Ryanair model hook, lone and sinker. Our big advantage compared to Ryanair is our level of unionisation. As others here have alluded to, the sleeping giant is slowly but surely awakening and will win in the end. For all my reluctance to get into a full blown conflict, I am completely prepared to do so for the greater good of stopping the rot. I still hope that the next few days will lbring forth a compromise to prevent the headlong rush into industrial warfare. Time will tell.