Well, the link above contains the full quotation from Unite, but the bit you are asking about is: -
Brendan Gold, Unite's national secretary for civil air transport, said a new ballot was likely due to three outstanding issues: the imposition of changes to work practices; the sacking of 14 crew for alleged offences committed during the ongoing dispute; and the withdrawal of staff travel perks
...so yes, it looks very much like any IA will indeed be unprotected, although for all the protection that protected IA grants I dont really think that's a huge issue.
(Cross post from the Pax thread now, but hey-ho)