we know our CEO would not deal with BASSA but only with Unite
The CEO should never have been involved with BASSA in the first place. That was the responsibiliy if the negotiating teams not the CEO. BASSA seemed to have had an over inflated opinion of themselves by believing they were important enough for the top man to deal directly with them.
When everything fell apart due to the ineptitude of the BASSA negotiating team and their abject inability to accept what was going on in the world around them it necessitated that the discussions be taken to a totally new level, that of the CEO and Unite, bypassing BASSA altogether.
What will be interesting to see now is if the top dogs at Unite have also had enough of BASSA as well and have 'strongarmed' them into accepting a deal. The 'behind the scenes' will never make the lught of day but I think we are all interested to see if the deal is workable and put this sorry mess behind us.