Litebulbs
Let me chuck another idea at you for how WW deals with his ongoing problem.
What is to stop him simply ceasing to act as Unite's unpaid dues collector? From a date, say June 12th, he tells Unite that he won't allow union dues to be deducted from staff pay and paid over to Unite by BA. Not only does he cancel this for cabin crew, he does it for all Unite members at BA. Unite, certainly BASSA, has an immediate cash flow problem.
What he then does is wait for Unite/BASSA to issue another ridiculous strike ballot, and sends them a letter, saying: "we don't recognise you for collective bargaining anymore". Whether he chooses to do that just for CC or for all Unite bargaining agreements depends on just how sick and tired he is of the total embarrassment of a leadership function displayed by Woodley, Simpson & Co. Let's assume he does it just for BASSA.
Now there can be no legal strike because there is no Union to call for it. Put another way, how will Unite prove those voting in any IA ballot are actually members if it cannot show that, at the time of such ballot, they were up to date with their subscriptions? That is a requirement for participation, is it not?
BA can then also force Unite/BASSA to go through the statutory process to prove they have sufficient representation to force recognition on BA (40% isn't it?) going forward. Remember this is a Union which, generally, finds it impossible to run a legal ballot first time round. So, whilst facing a cash flow problem because they now need to get everyone to sign individual direct debit forms, Unite also have to run a recognition ballot. During this period, BA serve notice on all staff, and provide them with revised terms along the lines of the current offer. Except they don't offer anything to up to 2,000 (ie the number covered by BA's current HR1 submission) of the staff they don't want. Every solitary Union rep will, of course, conveniently fall within BA's chosen criteria for redundancy. And all will be out of the door well before Unite manages to organise its recognition ballot. If Unite resist in the CC section, BA simply derecognise Unite in every other department and force them to run expensive recognition ballots, which they are not guaranteed to win, elsewhere in the airline.
Oh, and let's consider this in the context of looming public expenditure cuts. How many members does Unite have in the public sector? How many of their jobs are under threat (my view is that at least 200,000 public sector jobs are going in this Parliament, possibly as many as 500,000)? And what's the financial cost to Unite assuming such persons either leave the Union or at least pay reduced subs whilst unemployed?
The amount of its members' money Unite has managed to p*ss away fighting the BA dispute is breathtaking. I totally agree with Duncan Holley on one thing. This dispute will go down in history: as the one with the highest cost per Union member for the least reward. It will be studied at business school for many many years to come not, unfortunately, for the reasons DH seems to think, however.