While the bulk of the blame for this fiasco must be heaped on the shoulders of the union and the cabin crew who voted for strike action, a lot of blame should be attached to BA management of old. When aviation was much more regulated, when Easy and Ryanair were either non existant or tiny, when Heathrow was a fortress, those managements (you know who you are) fudged pay deal after pay deal and allowed BA cabin crew to become far better paid and to be endulged with far more ludicrous working practices than any other UK carriers. They allowed this because in those days they could still make high profits in spite of their costs. It had to end sometime and, one way or the other, it looks like this is the time.