This is how Simon Calder of The Indie neatly sums up the whole mess:
A squabble that has its roots in whether or not the senior cabin-crew member on British Airways long-haul flights should push a trolley has escalated to a national dispute over the future of industrial relations. The average passenger, though, long sidelined in this increasingly acrimonious tussle, merely wants to know if his or her flight is going to take off. However the dispute unfolds, the damage to British Airways – and by extension to its workforce – intensifies with each passing day of stalemate.
source http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/simon-calder-airline-faces-the-music-as-abba-chorus-grows-1978884.html