Litebulbs.
Judging from the latest noises, it does look like BA management hold all the aces. If Unite really thought they had a moderate chance of success, they would have balloted before now so that they could have called strikes in the run in to and over the Christmas period. Leaving it so late nullifies the effect, Most passengers will have made their travel plans for the festive season by now, so Unite have no chance of making any impact on forward bookings (assuming they did in the first place) Moreover, a ballot now would yield a result by late November. That means the 12 week period runs into Jan and Feb, two months when load factors tend to be light anyway. Unite will think long and hard about reballoting anyway as they need to have a reason that is in no way connected with the previous stoppages. You can bet that the BA legal eagles will go over every single word on the ballot paper. Unite cannot afford to go back to court and have yet another injunction slapped on them. Kinda dents the credibility. Equally, the union cannot afford to leave members open to dismissal because BA are able to establish that the strike is linked to the previous dispute. No new grievance has been registered. End of story.