I guess it begs the question, how would Unite know how many had volunteered??
I would guess that 216 is probably the number now being trained, i.e. the first batch, meaning that BA can probably have at least 500 in place for the 1st March. Along with 500 "strike breaking crew" that's more than enough to keep about 15 daily long haul services running indefinitely.(working to legal minimum rest etc.) Along with the 3500 or so other "strike breaking crew, I suspect that LHR Longhaul can be kept flying for a long, long time. Meanwhile every 3 weeks another batch of "crew" will be trained and join the fleet.
As to the cr@p from BASSA about volunteers having to worry about their jobs.... I guess the fear that they might be surplus to requirements stops people volunteering whenever there is disruption as well, does it? A lot of the jobs on the ground can be left unattended for a short period without harm, and that is much preferable than having our customer sitting on the ground going nowhere. There is NOTHING sinister about asking people to volunteer, what a total load of cow dung!
"If you can't win an argument with logic and facts, baffle them with BullSh!t and then scare the hell out of them" (page 1 of the BASSA guide to effective Comms)
CB