As someone who, with immense sadness and greater anger, spent yesterday rebooking many thousands of pounds worth of travel away from BA as we simply cannot afford a risk of disruption and the contractual problems and loss of business it causes, may I remind those of BA cabin staff who think a strike is a clever idea that they are almost unemployable outside their present job at any price, and certainly unemployable at the incomes they presently enjoy.
No-one's hiring. Did you notice that?
The same goes for most of BA's management, of course. But that does not justify a suicide strike which kills the airline.
I have just heard an idiot using the pseudonym of "Ben" (I think) on Radio 2 speaking for BA's striking CC; his case was no more than a feeble whinge about "erosion" over the years, followed by a denial that BA CC get £30K vs Virgin CC £14K. The right figures, he then said, are £26K for himself vs £20K for a friend in Virgin! He threatened that if crew numbers are reduced by one on some flights, economy passengers might have to get their own water. Just as as I and other pax had to do, in fact, coming back from BOM the other day, without any noticeable distress. He forgot to mention that the complement of CC is strictly regulated for safety, and that any excess is usually to allow a supervisor not to particpate in meal service and/or to beef up first class service.
Turkeys voting for Christmas seems to be the appropriate and seasonal phrase. BA simply cannot ruin 1,000,000 customers' Christmas travel plans, to say nothing of losing huge sums of their money, and stay in business. To the extent (95% so far) that we have managed to re-arrange all our travel up to March with other airlines, we are OK, but we will never go back to BA, regardess of what happens in the future, and nor will most of those very angry people.