As someone who's had the pleasure of sitting on the tarmac in Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Muscat many a time while they offload and board transiting passengers, I must admit I don't have to ask the cabin crew to put the blind down for me if I'm sat on the sunny side of the aircraft. The sun is a lot hotter in this part of the world and it's an automatic response.
So if the airline requests it of their employees when aircraft are sat in the sun empty for a while, only the bitchiness and foot-stomping BASSA diehards would think it's anything that merits more than following a simple instruction given by your employer.
They really are making themselves look like a bunch of puerile brats.
I look forward to this one being reported by the Daily Mail and others as militant squealing. I also look forward to the Socialist Worker and the Morning Star trying to spin it as mine owners sending their employees down the shaft without a canary.
(Thinking of it, would there be anything wrong in the Captain asking passengers to do it as a courtesy before leaving the plane? I'd be perfectly happy doing it myself.
It isn't that difficult to someone with a modicum of education and common sense).