Perhaps in a way BA created her own Trojan Horse.
Reading back a few posts regarding CC crew never transferring to other airlines but that the reverse does happen (middle east crews were mentioned) it suddenly struck me how paying too much over the odds simply forces demotivated staff to stick with BA, simply because they can never get similar working conditions (pay and other perks) elsewhere.
So, had BA been paying just about market rate in the last decades, it would have allowed people leaving from time to time (for example because of dissatisfaction with management decisions). The result would have been a less experienced but perhaps more dynamic workforce and a lower % of dissatisfied staff.
The unions too had a role to play in this. It is questionable that LONG TERM "well over the odds working conditions" is beneficial to the workforce as a whole (effects on long term profitability of the airline, effects on employability at other employers) and to the mental health state of the individual worker, who ends up in a dead-end street he/she probably never wanted to be in, in the first place...
All guilty and all victims but are all striving to restore the situation to a more healthy one?