Pcat - you asked
What can be accomplished with another strike?
As you point out, there is nothing to gain by more strike action. The trouble is that the union went about this entirely the wrong way. The strike card is the last resort. You can only play it once and when you do, you have to have exhausted all other possible avenues. Unite played it way to soon. A sensible union approach would have been to negotiate, put any management offers to the membership and if they get rejected the union then has a mandate to either continue negotiating at a tougher level, or to ask whether members are prepared to action short of strikes. A work to rule can be very effective as it not only protects members incomes, it also makes life hard on the company. Ratcheting up the pressure bit by bit gives you a next level to go to should you need it.
Unite went straight from A to Z in one bound. This can work if you are damned certain that a walkout will grind the business to an earth shuddering halt. Trouble is that Unite had no way of guaranteeing that.
The problem Unite now face is that there are only two courses of action open. One is to admit defeat and sign the deal, any deal and try and put some kind of positive spin on it. This is why the Unite leadership have made such noises about the BA offer being rejected by two thirds of members and only 15% supporting the offer. The alternative is to find a suitable new cause for strike action and pray that a) they can get greater support from members this time around and b) BA is not able to field enough VCC, non-striking crew and others to cover the operation. In reality the second option is now a non-starter. BA have volunteers in place and have made it plain that the New Fleet issue will not impact current crew - it was spelled out in the offer they put forward that the union membership turned down. If Unite go for a further strike ballot, they face the prospect of damaging their position not only within cabin crew, but also within BA generally. A failure to 'win' this dispute will also have knock on effects on their position nationally. I suspect that the Unite leadership will endeavour to quietly settle this.