The quoted posting from DH is vaguely interesting. It would seem that he and Lizanne were intending to hang around until they hit 55. Under the new age discrimination legislation I thought that cabin crew could continue flying beyond this limit, or have I got the wrong end of the stick ?
It would also seem that he has accepted that there is no way that he will get a job back with BA, yet seems determined to cling on to his union post despite this. Can't quite see the membership swallowing having a branch secretary who is not employed, but then the BASSA membership are full of surprises.
The choice of language is also quaint. He speaks of the relationship with the Unite leadership as needing to be "played" "nurtured" and "manipulated". In other words, from Unite's perspective he isn't to be trusted. Strange thing to put in the public domain...
What is abundantly clear is that the BASSA executive is not united. Having made a democratic decision, they are incapable of uniting behind it. It's bad enough having the cabin crew area served by two dysfunctional branches, but when the individual branches are in a state of anarchy themselves, there really is no hope of aproximating to a settlement. Small wonder that the Unite leadership are keen to bring the curtain down on this dismal affair.