What would your deal have been that would have been win-win for both?
Here is an idea
Target (original) £84m
New crew complements = £60m
New disruption agreement+fixed links+pay freeze (still get increments)
err, thats it. BA gets new cost base, more efficient EF rostering, and flexability in disruption.
Crew get no pay cut, and slight increase in work load. As well as no new fleet.
What BASSA never realised was these were talks of concessionary bargining, ie the cuts WERE going to be made. Their job was to make the cuts as painless as possible.
They wrongly believed that if they made it difficult enough BA would go away. In addition to this they clearly did not take legal advice until way too late to discover the tools available to BA if no agreement was reached. This combination left them badly exposed to what is now unfolding (imposition/weak strike).
This is dreadful representation, where ever crew end up now will be worse than a properly negotiated outcome. Afterwards the current leadership of BASSA must be exposed as the liers and incompetants that they are, and a sea change in the direction of BASSA.