To take your questions in reverse order -
I also have one more question for those in the BALPA know as personally its a bit of a deal breaker in my view. Did the chairman of BALPA take a pay rise this year and did any of the senior BALPA staff ? Yes i expect abuse from that question but i would like to know the answer and its an honest question. No i am not a member of management just someone who wants the facts (not emotive chanting) laid before them before they make a decision. I look forward to the feedback from my colleagues more in the "know" than me..
I cannot answer this as I have absolutely NO connection with BALPA, a trawl of my previous posts will show that I have long held the view that they should be subsumed into Unite, but I will make some general observations on your query.
I am a member of Unison and, while I may take a view on the level of payrise awarded to Dave Prentice it would certainly not be a deal breaker. What would matter is the effectiveness of that organisation in negotiating reasonable (or better) T&Cs for me, protecting me at work (legals etc) and whether they properly represent my viewpoint. The fringe benefits such as cheap loans I can do without.
I would ask you if you got a pay rise and if you did not why not? You would be a very rare creature if you did not aspire to one as I am sure your bills over the past year have risen, so it is with everyone. Unions exist to try to negotiate the satisfactory fulfilment of that aspiration so why shouild we treat our employees any different?
Your point re not saving others going to the wall - if the company goes bust then what can any union do to save it? What hey can do is try all means to ensure that the coffers do not get cleared out before the inevitable happens and ensure there is sufficient available to make proper redundancy payments. I say 'try' but never forget the debacle that was Robert Maxwell's Mirror Group, nobody saw that coming and nobody saw the books. Unions cannot do magic.
As to your main point. If anyone from any union offers you a guarantee of preserving or improving your T&Cs then you are looking at one really naive person, if so naive ask him/her to give you a personal guarantee backed with collateral, watch them run.
No union can give a GUARANTEE but those who in companies without the recognition of a strong union are certainly in a position where the company can impose revised T&Cs, including pay cut, by giving 90 days notice and they cannot carry out any collective action in protest without being in breach of contract. As employers are aware of this it may lead to dubious practices being carried out, many of which are extremely devious and can lead to individual breakdowns etc. A union, if run correctly, levels the playing field and allows each employee to be an individual also.
It also allows for a collective voice rather than the loudest in the crew room.
A further function is to meet with the employer and suggest ways forward for the business in good times and to protect their members in times such as now. An example of this is BALPA negotiating with BA in a minimal reduction of T&Cs for pilots when it was looking like BA going down the tubes rapidly, as opposed to what BA wished to impose. A further example is their involvement with EZY to improve the T&Cs of CTC pilots even though they were not obliged to do so.
I am interested in your use of ambivalent as in having feelings that draw you in opposite directions on this matter. As I posted previously, if you are a member YOU are BALPA unless you let a rabble take over, in which case more fool you and your colleagues, in which case I would say you have nothing to lose but the monthly subs and, hopefully, some time to fully participate, you may actually find that involvement invigorating.
Please remember we are a long way from the 'bad old days' of perpetual strikes on Merseyside or wherever and in a far more realistic world. I do find it sort of funny that the best the right wingers can do these days is to use images of the 60s & 70s to raise the spectre of militancy. That was over 30 years ago and it proves that they are fearful of a collective voice.
Hope this helps, awaiting incoming flak.