New Union
Presumably one of the first rules of the new union will be that none of the previous representatives will be allowed to stand for office?
These reps have proved themselves to be inadequate and ineffective (as well as untrustworthy, unaccountable, untruthful etc etc) and as such should be absolutely barred from holding positions of responsibility in the new union.....at the moment I think it's fair to say that BASSA has been shown to be nothing but a barrel of bad apples.....how important then not to let even one of these bad apples infect the fresh new barrel.
Although it has served some peoples' agendas over the years to sling mud at the pilots' union and to deride BALPAs progressive, pragmatic and inclusive approach to industrial representation, surely it would make sense to look at how BALPA formulated, perpetuated and demonstrated this open, transparent and accountable trade union?
Maybe, just maybe, the new CC union would take the olive branch of 'working together' on some issues that BALPA have frequently offered to BASSA in the past, but that has (for now obvious reasons) always been slapped away?
Rather than doing what they did at the last pension negotiations (nil research, nil input and then just cut-and-pasting pilot proposals), these two unions could work together? We ARE all employees in the same company and we DO all have pensions that are affected by the prosperity of the company and the success of future (by june2010) pension negotiations..... Call me crazy!
p.s. watch how quickly BASSA try to snake out of the strike! My money's on a full-on face-saving offensive, starting in.....ONE HOUR FIFTEEN MINUTES!! "Oh, noooooooo......BA's evil lawyers found a loop-hole mistake on the ballot paper! SHAAAAME, no strike!".....hope WW doesn't let BASSA off that easily