I would really like to be an observer at a branch meeting however.
I think meetings involving uninvolved FTOs would be more illuminating. I somehow rather doubt that the guy who represents, say, low paid local authority workers, is going to be overly sympathetic about spending members' subs on protecting travel perks for airline staff. Just google "local authority job cuts" or something to see what I mean.
My feeling is that senior officials of Unite are probably being asked to justify why BASSA is not being cut loose. If this is a step too far for organisations that still present a facade of sibling solidarity, then I'd be amazed if the leadership is not having to give assurances that the BASSA problem will be dealt with post-dispute. I'd love to be in on the meetings discussing this. My bet is that BASSA will be dismantled and integrated more closely into Unite's overall BA relationship. The public facade will be that this makes Unite stronger by more closely aligning all staff that it represents. Privately it will be to ensure that one very small group of members never, ever again causes such a colossal waste of money and senior officer time.
I think it is telling that BASSA members were somehow "forgotten" when it came to gauging support for the pension scheme changes at BA. All the other Unite-represented workgroups were consulted/balloted. BASSA members weren't apparently.